Japan is out, and Guam is the new topic... For now... They still havn't said for sure either way, and I likely won't find out until the second week of November.

 

How are the roads in Guam? Is it worth it to even bother? It looks like it has one main road around the perimeter and 4 or 5 roads cutting through the central region, might be fun, kind of like a track, depending on the condition of the road surface and the traffic. I'd guess 20 to 25 miles stem to stern, and maybe 10 miles across at it's largest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GuamMap.png

 

30x9 miles.

I've heard Guam traffic is pretty light, but theres hardly any twisties, and all the drivers suck at driving.

/shrug

 

Pick one of three:

Hawaii with an almost surely crappy job.
Japan with a semi exciting job on a warship which is away from home/family often.
Guam with an alright job, but almost always home.

Well, I felt the lesser of the 3 evils is Guam. Hawaii has too many military and tourists, while Japan would result in leaving my wife and newborn behind in a foreign country as I went and played Navy. So I submitted an application for Guam.

According to the application website, my application has been 'selected'. No idea what that means, but I assume it means I've been selected to go there and that orders should be following shortly. I could still say no, but I think the only way I could do that now would be to get out of the military... And if I changed my mind later, I could end up someplace much worse... Probably wearing a flak vest and kevlar in Iraq.

So confirmation should be arriving soon, and I'll need to start working through the logisitics of whatever reporting date they give me to figure out how to sell my house and move across the ocean and wether or not I'll be taking my Mini with. I hear there's a BMW dealership on Guam now, so there's potential for repairs... Tho the qualifications of the techs are questionable. Maybe I could be a part time BMW mechanic. But then again, maybe not.

 

Make me an offer I can't refuse.

 

One hundred billion dollars!

 

Sorry Will, thats alittle out of my range :(.

 

Does that include any type of BAT CAVE!

 

I'm moving to a new house in Bowie by Christmas and I could reserve a parking space for the Batmini :-)

 

Why not rent the house out using an agency so you have something to come back too? It might make a little money too.

 

Honestly, because it's not that nice of a house. When I bought it in 2002, I knew it was something I could afford, and bought it based on my military pay as an E5 alone (about 3000 a month). I still owed $ on my car, and the wife needed one to get a job since we don't live by public transportation.

So I picked a 'starter' house. Not a fixer mind you, but a house that we could get our footing set in. A house in which we wouldn't have to worry about being able to make bill payments because our mortgage is low enough... We don't have to worry about affording another car or some luxuries here and there... Basically, a budget or 'economy' house.

That said, despite the fact that it's value has increased almost twofold in 4 years, I do not see it as an investment, and am more than happy to let someone else use it as their starter house. If I were to rent it, I'd be far to worried about people not caring for it because it isn't a 'fancy' house. It's still a house and needs regular care and maintenance like any other house, but renters don't usually feel the same as landlords in terms of property upkeep and maintenance.

And there's too many overcharging and extremely shady property management companies out there. I'd rather take my equity, and put it into something nice where I'm moving next.