Should I rent or buy on a PCS to Utah?

Buy if the orders are three years or longer. You also want to be able to keep the house as a rental if you left early, and to close before you report. Rent first if the posting is shorter, uncertain, or you have never set foot in the south Salt Lake Valley. That is the whole test, and most military families I work with as a Realtor with Keller Williams South Valley can answer it in a minute once it is put that way.

The rest of this post is the reasoning behind each part, and the Utah-specific facts that change the math.

The three questions

How long are the orders, really? Buying and selling a house costs money on both ends — commissions, closing costs, moving, the months a house sits — and that cost has to be earned back by the time you sell. On a three-year posting it usually is. On a one-year or eighteen-month posting it usually is not, unless prices rise sharply, and planning on that is a bet, not a plan.

Would you keep it as a rental? This is the question that changes the answer for a lot of military families. A house in Herriman, Riverton or Bluffdale that you would be content to rent out when the next orders come is a different purchase from one you would have to sell. If the answer is yes, a shorter posting can still justify buying. If the thought of being a landlord from another state makes you tired, the answer is rent.

Can you close before you report? Buying from a distance is routine here, and a VA loan works in Utah the way it does everywhere, but it still takes weeks from contract to keys, and it takes a house worth buying being on the market when you are looking. Families who arrive with a report date in three weeks and no house under contract end up renting anyway, often in a hurry. If the timeline is tight, plan to rent first and buy on your own schedule.

Rent first or buy now, side by side

	Rent first	Buy now
Best when	Orders under three years, uncertain, or you have not seen the area	Orders three years or more, or you would keep it as a rental
Cost of being wrong	A lease you can break under the SCRA on new orders	Selling costs, or landlording from a distance
Time to move in	Days to weeks	Weeks to months, longer for new construction
Choosing the right town	You learn Bluffdale from Herriman from Riverton by living here	You choose from listings and a weekend visit
Housing allowance	Covers rent; nothing builds	Covers a mortgage; equity builds if you stay
Flexibility on next orders	Full	Sell, or rent it out

The Utah-specific facts

The lease escape is real. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a service member who receives PCS orders may terminate a residential lease with written notice and a copy of the orders; the termination takes effect 30 days after the next rent payment is due (50 U.S.C. § 3955). Utah landlords know this. It is what makes renting first a low-risk decision rather than a trap.

Camp Williams is a Guard post, and postings vary. Many arrivals are Guard and Reserve families on longer, more predictable assignments, which tilts the answer toward buying. But if your orders are to Hill Air Force Base, that is north of Salt Lake City, not the south valley, and the geography of this post does not apply.

The towns are genuinely different, and you cannot tell from a map. Bluffdale is small and semi-rural with little inventory, Herriman is new and large and still building, Riverton is established. Which one fits a Camp Williams family depends on the second commute and the budget. Six months of renting answers that question in a way a listing never will.

New construction takes longer than the sign says. A large share of what is for sale in Herriman is new. Builders here run long, and a report date does not move a builder’s schedule. If you must be in a house on a date, buy resale or rent.

The housing allowance is not a figure I will quote. It changes annually and varies by rank, dependents and location. Get the current number from your housing office and your lender, and do the rent-or-buy arithmetic on that, not on a forum.

When buying is clearly right

• Orders of three years or more, with a reasonable chance of extending.
• You have a lender lined up, a Certificate of Eligibility in hand, and a fully underwritten pre-approval.
• You would keep the house as a rental if you left early, and you have thought about what that involves from another state.
• You have visited, or someone you trust has walked the actual house and driven the actual commute.
• The house is resale, or new construction with a completion date well before your report date and a rental fallback if it slips.

When renting first is clearly right

• Orders under two years, or orders that could change.
• You have never been to the south valley and are choosing a town from photographs.
• The report date is inside a month.
• You are not sure whether you want new construction in Herriman or an established street in Riverton, and the honest answer is that you do not know yet.
• Your spouse’s job is not settled, and the second commute is the one that decides the town.

Renting first is not a failure to commit. It is the same advice I give civilians moving to a place they do not know: if you cannot name the town and the neighborhood without hedging, rent for six months. Military families get a better version of that deal than anyone, because the lease can be broken on orders.

The rental question, answered honestly

Keeping a south valley house as a rental when the next orders come is common, and it works for the families who go in with their eyes open. Three things to know before you count on it. The primary residential exemption comes off a home that is no longer your primary residence, so the property tax on a rented house is calculated on the full value rather than 55 percent of it (Utah Code 59-2-103) — budget the rent on that basis, not on your current bill. Managing a house from another state means paying someone local to do it, and that cost comes out of the rent. And in my experience a newer Herriman house in a subdivision with many similar rentals competes with every one of them, while an established house on a mature street tends to find a tenant with less effort. None of that is a reason not to do it. All of it belongs in the arithmetic before you buy with the plan of renting later.

The one mistake to avoid either way

Choosing a house near Camp Williams without knowing what living next to the post is like. Training noise, the 2010 fire, and the Mountain View Corridor traffic are the three things to understand before you sign a lease or a contract on the south bench. Renters find out in the first week. Buyers find out in the first week too, but they own it.

If you are on orders and want a straight read on rent versus buy for your timeline, the answer sheet is where I put the questions I ask every relocating family, and it takes about ten minutes to work through.

— Kelsey Earl, Realtor, Keller Williams South Valley

Note: General information, not tax or legal advice. Tax rules, rates and deadlines change and vary by county — confirm anything here with the county assessor or treasurer and with your own CPA before you act on it.