Second Infantry Division officials plan on cracking down on dishonest housing brokers in Area 1:
More than 700 2nd ID soldiers live off post with their families in Area I; only 14 percent are on accompanied orders. The other soldiers with families are not command-sponsored families, meaning they must pay out of pocket to travel to South Korea. Since 2005, soldiers with non-command-sponsored families residing in South Korea are eligible to request an overseas housing allowance.
During the past few weeks, Area I and 2nd ID officials have taken notice of living conditions for soldiers like Tegels and have begun developing a plan to help families find better off-post housing.
They presented that plan to soldiers at a town-hall meeting Monday on Camp Red Cloud and planned another presentation at Camp Casey on Tuesday.
“We owe it to you that you live in a decent place,” 2nd ID commander Maj. Gen. James Coggin said from the audience Monday.
Real estate brokers must speak English or have co-workers who speak English and can work with soldiers. They must also be licensed, though officials said they haven’t yet looked at whether an unlicensed broker can team with a licensed broker — a common practice in South Korea.
Area I also is requiring approved brokers to provide transportation to and from bases.
That should include two or three morning trips, three or four midday trips and two to three evening trips, Area I commander Col. Larry Jackson said at the meeting.
Most apartments near 2nd Infantry Division camps are usually quite substandard and soldiers not familiar with Korea do get screwed around by the local land lords. I hope this new licensed broker system improves things, but judging by the housing scams I have seen in areas south of 2ID that have this same type of policy, this is definitely something I would have to see to believe.
My best advice to people looking for housing off post is to have a trusted Korean friend such as a KATUSA to go with you and help you out. Also never go for the first place you see. You need to spend the time to look at as many apartments as possible and then play the landlords against each other to get the best deal. Also you need to have the housing contract translated and verified by JAG.
When I lived off post I intentionally did not live in an apartment that was near the camp. Farther away from a camp you are usually better the apartments are and more trustworthy the landlords because they are not used to dealing with US soldiers and do not play the various scam games that landlords near the US camps like to play. I just had to take a jog every morning to get to work which is no big deal since I had PT every morning anyway.
I lived in a high rise apartment in Uijongbu that was only four years old that had three bedrooms, two bathrooms for $700 bucks a month. I did have to buy a refrigerator and a washing machine. At least for Uijongbu this kind of gives people an idea of housing prices available off post. You should not be paying anymore that $700 bucks and when I left the apartment I had no issues at all. Often landlords will try and scam soldiers who are renting by keeping deposits or charging secret fees among a host of other scams they like to play.
I had no issues at all when I left and I hope the new licensed broker system does the same thing for all soldiers living off post in 2ID, but like I said before I have to see it to believe it.
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4:57 pm on August 10th, 2007 1
Hmmm…
Strict licensing is a great idea. This seems like a good way to insure all brokers are accounted for and there aren’t any freelancers supplying apartments without returning the required kickback to those on base who approve it all.
Somewhere in all this, the idea of supplying high-quality, correctly-priced housing with favorable leases to off-post/base GIs comes a distant second.
If USFK leadership was truly interested in protecting the interests of the American military and its servicemembers, a number of easy steps would be taken to insure GIs could get the best possible housing at the lowest possible price in what is truly a buyers’ market.
A standard contract would be developed and any landlord wishing to get a piece of the Housing Allowance Pie would have to agree to it.
Past and current apartment prices would be monitored to insure they were close to market value and not grossly inflated every time an officer moves in… as the conversation usually goes, “How much, Mama?” “What’s your rank, GI?”
Any fraud on the landlord’s part would be perused in Korean court. I have been to a lot of off-post/base apartments and almost all had thinly-veiled taps off the electrical system, hot water line and/or heating oil tank. Sincere inspections by some CE grunt NOT involved in housing are needed.
(I have written in-depth about these scams, how to detect them and how to avoid them. Senior members of USFK have read what I have written yet nothing has changed… except superficial paperwork re-arranging that doesn’t affect the real issues. If anybody is interested, I’ll happily write about it more.)
All the Korean workers in the housing departments who seem to have been running the same scams for 30 years with their buddy-buddy/at-their-mercy landlords would be replaced.
An inspection/approval system that wasn’t just begging to be manipulated to exchange kickbacks for inspection approvals and funneling of tenets would be developed.
The whole shady broker scam would be eliminated (not increased as they are doing now) and the market would be OPENED to competition… allowing any land owner to rent to GI Joe as long as they agreed to the contract and provided housing which passed an independent inspection by someone in no position to get a kickback. This would reduce prices, reduce corruption and increase competition to provide GI Joe with quality housing.
So why isn’t this being done? Why are they looking to implement programs that reduce competition to the long-term corrupt players… and foster an environment suitable for quiet kickback… and which have been shown not to reduce scams, lower price or increase quality in other areas.
Incompetence? Apathy? Corruption? All of the above?
J!
10:21 pm on August 10th, 2007 2
“I lived in a high rise apartment in Uijongbu that was only four years old that had three bedrooms, two bathrooms for $700 bucks a month. “
Wow! $700 would barely get you a studio in Seoul.
12:42 am on August 11th, 2007 3
I also lucked out in Uijongbu. Was able to get a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment in a brand new highrise complex for $760 a month. Luckily my mother-in-law new the lady that was selling the apartments off and we were able to get in their while they were still available.
8:54 am on August 11th, 2007 4
Sonagi, Uijongbu is much cheaper than Seoul and more and more Koreans are moving up to Uijongbu and commuting to Seoul because of the cheaper housing.
Cpt. West, $760 is a good price as well. I have seen soldiers paying $600-$700 bucks for one bedroom apartments with one bathroom in the old dirty brick buildings like the ones you see across the street from CRC or in the housing ville adjacent to Camp Casey. If people would look around more and be willing to walk a little further in the morning much better deals can be found instead of dealing with the landlords in the ville.
7:27 pm on January 31st, 2008 5
Does anyone know where there might be a nice place to live near Camp Jackson. I don’t mind the walk in the morning so long as the place is clean and safe for my wife and Daughter.
6:24 pm on February 23rd, 2008 6
[...] across the street from Camp Red Cloud immediately after the 2nd Infantry Division announced the beginning of a new policy to use housing brokers in Area I. This off limits order only effects Julie’s Realty in [...]