PCS & Military Move Terms in Plain English

PCS (Permanent Change of Station)

An official military move from one duty station to another, distinct from a temporary duty assignment (TDY/TAD). Your orders are what set the whole real estate timeline in motion.

Orders

The official document directing your move, including your report date. Draft or verbal orders can be enough to start a lender pre-approval conversation, even before you have final, signed orders.

Report Date

The date you're expected to be at your new duty station. This is usually the anchor date everything else in a PCS-timed home purchase or sale gets planned around.

TLE / TLA (Temporary Lodging Expense / Allowance)

A reimbursement for lodging and meals during a move, used domestically (TLE) or overseas (TLA), for a limited number of days. Useful to know about if there's a gap between selling your old home and closing on a new one.

Household Goods (HHG)

Your belongings as moved by the government's contracted movers. Pickup and delivery windows rarely align perfectly with a closing date, so it's worth planning for a possible gap.

PPM / DITY Move (Personally Procured Move)

An option to move your own household goods yourself (or hire your own movers) instead of using the government's contracted movers, typically in exchange for a reimbursement based on what the government would have paid.

Dependent Entry Approval

Required authorization for command-sponsored family members to accompany a service member on certain overseas assignments — relevant to timing if your move involves an OCONUS (outside the continental U.S.) PCS.

Gaining / Losing Command

The command you're moving to (gaining) and the one you're leaving (losing). Your gaining command's location is usually the starting point for narrowing down neighborhoods.

House-Hunting Trip (HHT)

An authorized trip (with its own reimbursement rules) to look for housing at your new duty station before your report date. Most HHTs are short, so narrowing down a shortlist beforehand makes a real difference.

Rent-Back

An arrangement where a seller stays in the home for a short period after closing, paying the buyer rent — a common tool when a PCS timeline doesn't perfectly match a closing date.