The 90-Day PCS to Jacksonville Plan

Two-story house on a wet street at dusk

 At 90 days: orders, the gate, and the move type

Write the report date at the top of a paper calendar. Then call the transportation office before you call a mover you found online. A government household-goods shipment is the move the military schedules against your allowance. A personally procured move means you move it, or you hire it, and any reimbursement is tied to what the government shipment would have cost. The counseling, the weight rules, and the dates come from that office. I will not invent an allowance table here.

Pick the gate before you pick a neighborhood. NAS Jacksonville is the west bank. Naval Station Mayport is the mouth of the river. Blount Island is a third gate, not a nickname for either of those. The commute comparison is on its own page. Same week, look up Jacksonville MHA FL058 on the DTMO BAH lookup. The 2026 rates effective January 1, 2026, for a short list of grades: E-5 with dependents $2,181 a month and $1,803 without, E-6 with dependents $2,241, E-7 with dependents $2,283, O-3 with dependents $2,364. If your grade is not on that list, use the lookup. BAH is not the mortgage approval.

 At 75 days: COE, the lender, and school records

Request the Certificate of Eligibility on VA.gov or through the lender you will actually use. The COE shows entitlement. It is not a pre-approval. The pre-approval is the lender's letter, and it needs the documents they ask for: LES, orders, identification, and a straight answer on allotments and any other mortgage. Ask how long that letter stays usable. Start it now so you are not writing offers on a letter that aged out.

Full VA entitlement has no VA-set county cap. If part of your entitlement is still tied to another loan, the partial-entitlement math uses the 2026 FHFA one-unit conforming limit for Duval, Clay, St. Johns, and Nassau, $832,750. That figure is not an FHA limit. Have the lender calculate what is left. Do not let a screenshot do it.

For school-age kids, pull records now. MIC3 is the interstate compact military families use so transcripts, placement, and graduation credits can move. Florida participates. The compact does not assign a campus. Unofficial records help the receiving district start. Official records follow. If there is an IEP or a 504, bring it. Shot records too. County letter grades and the district locator are how you check an address later, on fldoe.org and the district site. An A district is not an A campus.

 At 60 days: pre-approval and a live look

Do not write an offer until the lender letter is in hand. Then look at houses the right way. A live walkthrough means a video call, room to room, with the panel, the street, and the roof from the yard. A listing video is edited. It is a commercial. It will not show the neighbor's boat, the ditch, or the age of the electrical equipment.

You can buy before you land. The home inspection still happens. Renting first is a legitimate call if the right house is not there. Forcing a bad purchase to hit a round number on this timeline is how people own the wrong side of the river. If you will be out of state for the whole search, the signing rules are on the out-of-state page. Call (904) 309-0609 before you book flights around a house you have only seen in a slideshow.

 At 45 days: contract, appraisal, inspection, insurance

The target at 45 days is a contract you understand, or a written decision to rent. If you are under contract, put the inspection deadline and the financing deadline on the same calendar as the pack-out. Those dates do not move because a carrier called.

The lender orders the VA appraisal. That appraisal is the lender's valuation, and it checks VA minimum property requirements. Tidewater is the notice when the value may come in short. The home inspection is your contract right and a separate appointment. Do not merge them into one Saturday. While those are out, get a wind quote and, if the house is near the river, a creek, or the beaches, a flood quote. The mortgage company may not require flood on every lot where you still want the number. Read both quotes before you spend the inspection period arguing about paint.

 At 30 days: repairs, movers, and enrollment

Negotiate repairs with a clear split. Some items are VA minimum property issues. Some are things you can live with. Some are things a seller will not do, and you either accept that or you walk. Get that answer while you still have a deadline, not on the morning of closing. If you already own a house and these orders are forcing a sell, rent, or hold choice, make it on that page. Do not hide that decision inside a repair reply.

Lock household-goods dates with the transportation office and tell them the closing date or the lease start. Leave a buffer if you can. A carrier spread is a range of days. Plan for the range. Call the school district, not only a parents' group, and ask how enrollment and immunizations work under the compact. Utilities should be scheduled for the day you take possession. Electric stays on through inspections and the walkthrough.

Homestead does not belong on this 30-day list unless January 1 falls inside your ownership and occupancy. You have to own the house and occupy it on January 1, then file by March 1. As of fall 2026, the 2026 window is closed. March 1, 2026 was a Sunday, so the timely deadline was March 2, 2026. The next occupancy date is January 1, 2027, and the file-by date is March 1, 2027. A fall report and a November closing still wait for January 1. A wrongful claim can become a lien with a 50 percent penalty and 15 percent interest under section 196.161. If the dates do not line up, do not file.

 At 14 days: walkthrough, wire, and the gap

The final walkthrough still happens. If you cannot stand in the house, do it live on video the same day, or put a person you trust there with the agent. Do not skip it because the truck is already in Georgia. You are checking that agreed repairs were done and that the house is in the condition the contract describes.

Wire fraud is a closing problem, not a theory. Call the title company back on a phone number you already trust, from the closing papers or from their own site, before you send a wire. Do not use a number that arrived in a last-minute email. If you cannot attend signing, a power of attorney works only when the closing agent and the lender have both agreed to the form. Get that yes while you can still fly in. Book the gap between report day and furniture now. Base lodging and hotels fill in PCS season. Pets need a real plan for those nights, not a hope that the carrier will be early.

 Report week: keys, the truck, and what can wait

Report to the command. Housing does not outrank that. If you closed, you should have keys, garage remotes, and any gate fobs the contract listed. Household goods often miss report week. That is a normal gap. Three nights on an air mattress is a plan. A surprise delivery with no power and no key is not.

The deed will not be in the homestead portal on day one. In Duval, allow about 60 days after closing for the deed to post. The online session at homestead.coj.net does not save. The deed has to be in your name. Joyce Morgan's office is (904) 255-5900, 231 E. Forsyth Street, Suite 260. File in person if the deed has not posted, and only when you owned and occupied on January 1. Mail forwarding, school start, and the first call to the insurance agent if a binder date is about to lapse are the other errands. If a date slipped, call (904) 309-0609 before closing morning. We would rather move a walkthrough than discover the problem at the table.

 Keep going

• PCS to Jacksonville
• Military relocation help
• NAS Jacksonville or Mayport
• Buying from out of state
• Sell, rent, or hold

Call (904) 309-0609.