By: David Kucic RA, ABR, AHWD, e-PRO, GRI
First Sergeant, USA (Ret)
Tropic Lightning Real Estate, Oahu, Hawaii

A few months back, I posted a blog about How TLA works at Schfofield Barracks, Hawaii.  That blog gives some pretty specific points about TLA in Hawaii but I did not touch on an important subject that I want to address now.

The housing on Schofield Barracks, just outside the town of Mililani, is "Privatized".  This means that there is a civilian company that has signed a contract with the Army to manage and maintain the Soldier housing at Schofield Barracks.  The name of the company is Actus Lend Lease.  One of the agreements in the contract is that the Army would assist Actus by trying to put as many Soldiers into the housing as possible.

This is where you run into a problem if you are in the military, on your way to Hawaii and you want to purchase real estate.

When you arrive in Hawaii you will most likely be staying either at the Inn at Schofield Barracks, The Hale Koa Hotel in Waikiki or the Best Western Airport Inn.  Upon your arrival, you need to "sign in" which most Soldiers are familiar with from having PCS'd many times before.  Your TLA does not start until AFTER you sign in so that means you will pay your hotel bill and meals out of your own pocket until you sign in.

When you do sign in, you will be sent to the replacement detachment to begin inprocessing.  The replacement detachment at Schofield Barracks runs a weekly schedule and it only starts on Monday.  So if you arrive on Tuesday, you will be on "zero week" until the following Monday when you will start week 1.  The housing briefing is given on day 2 which is Tuesday.  This means that once you get the housing briefing they will let you know if there is anything availalbe for you.  If there is, you have to take it or your TLA will stop in 10 days.

My recommendation to you IF YOU WANT TO PURSUE BUYING A HOME IN HAWAII is to plan your arrival for a Tuesday or Wednesday.  That will give you almost one week prior to inprocessing at housing for you to find a home and get an accepted offer.  Once you have the accepted offer, you will inprocess at housing and will have your TLA extended for up to 60 days in order for you to close on the property.

Remember, this is all geared toward Schofield Barracks, Hawaii near Mililani.  I do not know the particular inprocessing schedule for any of the other military installations.  Wheeler Army Airfield will also fall under this same standard because the Soldiers also inprocess at Schofield Barracks.

For more information contact me and I can assist you with a plan for your arrival. 

Please note that there is also a possibility that you may go to the housing office and they say that they do not have any available housing at which point you will have plenty of time to search for a home.

I wrote this blog because I have seen several Soldiers over the past few months get "forced" into housing because they did not know this information.

Good luck and dont forget to log on to www.davidkucic.com to start your Hawaii Home search PRIOR to your arrival.

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