Do you always take it? Have you ever had problems taking it?

I know that it's more like a priveledge than a right, and that they don't have to let you take it, but I'm kind of irked that they aren't letting dh.

We didn't take it last time, and we ended up spending a lot of money on hotel costs that we didn't expect.

And dh has tons of leave available, and is requesting it 2 months in advance - plenty of notice. Plus, he has earned two different certificates for days off - I forget what they are called.

But he was told that he was in a 'unique' situation since we don't have kids and I can handle it on my own, so they wouldn't approve it.

:huh

We just wanted to do a long weekend. I don't get it. Considering our PRD has already come and gone, they should be happy he's still here to help with all the stuff that's going on, not punishing him for being the most senior petty officer in the shop.

So -is this normal? Is house hunting leave just a fantasy?

Dh has always taken it and has never had any approval problems.

It seems to be a theme here, and usually it doesn't bother us. Like weekend duty days for every rotation, holiday duty days, staying late on weekdays to cover guys who have to pick up the kids... all that doesn't bother me (usually... catch me on a cranky day and I might say different!) because I hope the same will happen when we are the ones with kids.

But to not let him take house hunting leave? I don't think that's cool.

Of course I CAN handle it on my own. But damn, shore duty is supposed to be the time when we get to do things together. And I don't see why I NEED to do it on my own.

And I think it's insulting to insinuate that if we had kids, I wouldn't be able to handle it. :huh That just doesn't make sense.

they can deny house hunting leave.. it isn't mandatory and my dh has had it denied to him. or made him ask his checking in command which is like no you just got here.. In reality it depends on the mood of those signing the chit. also some people say if you are buying a house they more than likely give it to you, leasing sometimes they don't..

i have never seen special treatment given to those with kids. like no weekend duty or no holiday duty. that would be nice though. we have never taken house hunting leave, but i do know that since our ship is going to decom that they did give out house hunting leave. everyone had to use their stand down leave from deployment

DH has only taken it once (out of 4 moves). I usually just go without him. This move, I'm leaving a week before he does to do the house hunting.

This is definitely a very family oriented base and command. And it's nothing official, but the guys tell him all the time, "since you don't have kids..." and that REALLY is ok with us usually, becuase we understand how important that is.

I guess it's not a big deal. I'm just nervous about doing everything with a POA. I've used a POA plenty before, but never for buying a house. But I guess in Norfolk, that will be nothing new to them and I shouldn't have to worry about it too much.

It does feel strange though to BUY a house in dh's name without him even seeing it first. I've done that with rentals and military housing before, but when we bought last time, we did it together.

Maybe I won't buy a house right away. Maybe I'll try to find something else and wait until he's up there with me, and we've gotten to know the area a little bit more. I think I would be more comfortable with that.

This is definitely a very family oriented base and command. And it's nothing official, but the guys tell him all the time, "since you don't have kids..." and that REALLY is ok with us usually, becuase we understand how important that is.

I guess it's not a big deal. I'm just nervous about doing everything with a POA. I've used a POA plenty before, but never for buying a house. But I guess in Norfolk, that will be nothing new to them and I shouldn't have to worry about it too much.

It does feel strange though to BUY a house in dh's name without him even seeing it first. I've done that with rentals and military housing before, but when we bought last time, we did it together.

Maybe I won't buy a house right away. Maybe I'll try to find something else and wait until he's up there with me, and we've gotten to know the area a little bit more. I think I would be more comfortable with that.

DH's command also did the "because you don't have kids" line before DD was born. He told then he DOES have a wife, so the single sailors need to pick up the slack.

I'm taking my digital camera and laptop to take photos of the places we're looking at- to send to DH for approval. We plan on renting for the first 6 months. We think it's much better than buying right off the bat & something being wrong with the area or with the house I chose (without having DH look at it)

I hope you get things sorted out.

We never took a prehouse hunting time. We just didn't. DH has been to busy at work to allow this time off.

well before we moved down here we were thinking of taking house hunting leave but for some reason we didnt and we werent to disappointed in what we picked but next time we are definitely doing house hunting leave so we dont have to just go off pictures. we want another house but it has to have a fenced back yard and we need to see the inside because we never got to see the inside of the house we are renting right now. but since Robbie will be going to kindergarten next year I definitely want to check out the area unless we end up back in the hampton roads area again.

He was definitely too busy when we moved here from Hawaii, from sea duty. And we chose a rental based on pics. When we got here, it was totally different than the pictures, reeked of smoke even though they had promised us a non-smoking one, and didn't have the privacy fence that the picture showed. We lost our deposit and ended up living out of a hotel over a month while we scrambled to find a place, and ended up buying one.

I'm very grateful we ended up in the house we did, because I loved it, and it was a great move for us financially. But the process was mind-numbing, and I'm scared of that happening again.

This time at least *I* will definitely go in advance since from GA to VA is much easier than HI to GA. I won't make the same mistake twice.

With so many military being unable to sell their homes before they transfer, there are a lot of homes to be rented from sailors/military that would love to have other military families in them. My husband and i got lucky and found a great place in VA. He has been up there for 5 months waiting for us to sell our home in Florida. Well it's not happening in the market. So, I took a job, I'm taking my girls, and we are joining daddy. We have to rent out my house to strangers. I would love to have some military family in it. However, we are in Central Florida and not many come out this way unless they are recruiting. Anyway, we found two sites that put us in touch with people like us. Most just can't sell their houses or they only want to deal with other military. Militarybyowner.com and ahrn.com. Both deals with military. One actually will filter houses by BAH if you want it too. It can be ran by area or by base/installation. I know that we got a hefty amount taken off of the deposit and they said no problem with rent being split 1st and 15th if we wanted. Anyway, that is our experience with our move right now. PS...If you know anyone heading down to the Orlando area......I know where a gorgeous 4 year old house is..he he he