Planning for a Cookeville visit (for sale, real estate, car insurance)
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The wife and I are heading out to Tennessee in a few weeks to check out a few different areas and homes for our retirement. I have never been to Tennessee but after doing much research and talking to people we seem to be drawn to Tennessee and Cookeville is high on the list. Its weird but the wife and I both have a gut feeling this is the place. We will be looking for a mid size home (~2,500sf) with some elbow room (~2+ acres). I have not heard of any bad areas in Cookeville but is there any recommendations of areas to look and areas to not look? We currently live in a large metro area so getting away from city traffic and noise is what we are looking for but close enough (within 20 minutes) to a town for shopping, restaurants, etc. We are also boaters so being somewhat close to lakes and rivers would be nice.
The wife and I are heading out to Tennessee in a few weeks to check out a few different areas and homes for our retirement. I have never been to Tennessee but after doing much research and talking to people we seem to be drawn to Tennessee and Cookeville is high on the list. Its weird but the wife and I both have a gut feeling this is the place. We will be looking for a mid size home (~2,500sf) with some elbow room (~2+ acres). I have not heard of any bad areas in Cookeville but is there any recommendations of areas to look and areas to not look? We currently live in a large metro area so getting away from city traffic and noise is what we are looking for but close enough (within 20 minutes) to a town for shopping, restaurants, etc. We are also boaters so being somewhat close to lakes and rivers would be nice.
Thanks
-Don
Welcome to Tennessee!
You shouldn't have any problems finding a 2500 square foot home on a couple of acres with easy access to Cookeville. Most people in the Cookeville area don't live in the city, and homes like what you're looking for are quite common. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, there are about 67,000 people who live within Cookeville's ZIP codes, but only 30,000 live in the city.
There is no "bad" part of town, and since you're looking for a large lot you'll likely have to look outside of town anyway. There is no traffic in Cookeville, so that's something else you won't have to worry about.
Because you're boaters, I'm going to recommend that you look SW of the city so you can be just a few miles from huge, deep, beautiful Center Hill Lake which is 64 miles long and has 9 marinas, 3 state parks, 9 recreation areas, the Appalachian Center for Craft, and 5 restaurants along its shoreline. Here's a picture of the lake:
Also SW of town is Burgess Falls, a state park that's just 7 miles from Cookeville's city limits. It's a gorgeous park with several waterfalls along a nature trail. I have friends who moved near there specifically so they can regularly visit the park.
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You shouldn't have any problems finding a 2500 square foot home on a couple of acres with easy access to Cookeville. Most people in the Cookeville area don't live in the city, and homes like what you're looking for are quite common. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, there are about 67,000 people who live within Cookeville's ZIP codes, but only 30,000 live in the city.
There is no "bad" part of town, and since you're looking for a large lot you'll likely have to look outside of town anyway. There is no traffic in Cookeville, so that's something else you won't have to worry about.
Because you're boaters, I'm going to recommend that you look SW of the city so you can be just a few miles from huge, deep, beautiful Center Hill Lake which is 64 miles long and has 9 marinas, 3 state parks, 9 recreation areas, the Appalachian Center for Craft, and 5 restaurants along its shoreline. Here's a picture of the lake:
Also SW of town is Burgess Falls, a state park that's just 7 miles from Cookeville's city limits. It's a gorgeous park with several waterfalls along a nature trail. I have friends who moved near there specifically so they can regularly visit the park.
I was looking on Zillow at some of the homes near Center Hill. Looks like a great boating lake. I also noticed Dale Hollow to the north but a bit more distance.
I was looking on Zillow at some of the homes near Center Hill. Looks like a great boating lake. I also noticed Dale Hollow to the north but a bit more distance.
I happen to like Dale Hollow more than Center Hill. Dale Hollow is larger and much less crowded (Center Hill gets a lot of boaters from Nashville), but as you noticed it's also more remote. That's not necessarily a bad thing; land is probably cheaper around Dale Hollow. But unless you plan on boating every day, you might want to live closer to town. If you stick to the western part of Putnam County not only will you be close to Center Hill, but you're also right off I-40 and a quick drive to the Nashville airport. Still, you might want to check out Dale Hollow when you're scoping the area.
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its - possession
it's - contraction of it is
your - possession
you're - contraction of you are
their - possession
they're - contraction of they are
there - referring to a place
loose - opposite of tight
lose - opposite of win
I happen to like Dale Hollow more than Center Hill. Dale Hollow is larger and much less crowded (Center Hill gets a lot of boaters from Nashville), but as you noticed it's also more remote. That's not necessarily a bad thing; land is probably cheaper around Dale Hollow. But unless you plan on boating every day, you might want to live closer to town. If you stick to the western part of Putnam County not only will you be close to Center Hill, but you're also right off I-40 and a quick drive to the Nashville airport. Still, you might want to check out Dale Hollow when you're scoping the area.
Looking on Zillow, my wife did find a house he really likes next to Dale Hollow but then these are just Zillow pictures that can be deceiving. This is between the Standing Stone State Park and Dale Hollow. I was thinking this could be a little too far from a town like Cookeville. Our biggest concern would be emergency medical response.
My wife and I made the move from So. Calif to Cookeville about 1 1/2 year ago for retirement and could not be happier. You have made an excellent choice. Chances are that when you sell your Calif house( if you have any quantity of equity) will be able to purchase the house and land you are looking for and pay cash. If you DM me I can give you an excellent real estate website for the area. Zilllow sometimes is limited in describing local color. JMT is one of the most helpful and prolific writers about Cookeville and you can trust his information. Congratulations and you will never regret your move to Cookeville. When you get in the area, DM me again and I will give you information for a local women's welcome club that was set up originally for people moving to Cookeville from outside Tennessee. Their total goal is to have fun together and they do a good job of it. As a result, the Husbands have gotten together for golf, motorcycle riding, etc.
My wife and I made the move from So. Calif to Cookeville about 1 1/2 year ago for retirement and could not be happier. You have made an excellent choice. Chances are that when you sell your Calif house( if you have any quantity of equity) will be able to purchase the house and land you are looking for and pay cash. If you DM me I can give you an excellent real estate website for the area. Zilllow sometimes is limited in describing local color. JMT is one of the most helpful and prolific writers about Cookeville and you can trust his information. Congratulations and you will never regret your move to Cookeville. When you get in the area, DM me again and I will give you information for a local women's welcome club that was set up originally for people moving to Cookeville from outside Tennessee. Their total goal is to have fun together and they do a good job of it. As a result, the Husbands have gotten together for golf, motorcycle riding, etc.
Thank you for the information and sharing your experience with the move from SoCal. We also think this is the right move from everything we have heard so far. I have been reading this forum for about a year now and I agree that JMT is very knowledgeable, helpful and very much appreciated.
Fortunately we already sold our house back in 2007 so we just need to retire which could be very soon.
We just got back from a week in Cookeville. We had a great time and fell in love with Cookeville and the general central Tennessee area. It was better than we expected ... and we expected it to be good. We also looked at a few homes online before we went and we hooked up with an agent and viewed them. The house at the top of our list was much better than we expected and at a price we could not pass on ... so we took the plunge. My wife and I are very glad we took the trip and we feel very confident we picked the right location and house to retire.
We just got back from a week in Cookeville. We had a great time and fell in love with Cookeville and the general central Tennessee area. It was better than we expected ... and we expected it to be good. We also looked at a few homes online before we went and we hooked up with an agent and viewed them. The house at the top of our list was much better than we expected and at a price we could not pass on ... so we took the plunge. My wife and I are very glad we took the trip and we feel very confident we picked the right location and house to retire.
Thanks for the advise!
I'm so glad you had a wonderful trip to Tennessee! What all did you do while you were here? And if you noticed a whole bunch of Harleys while you were in Cookeville it's because there were about 2,000 in town this week for a state convention. It's normally a lot quieter.
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its - possession
it's - contraction of it is
your - possession
you're - contraction of you are
their - possession
they're - contraction of they are
there - referring to a place
loose - opposite of tight
lose - opposite of win
Welcome to Cookeviile ! My wife and I did the same thing as you 7 yrs ago. Checked out Cookeville on the WWW, drove down here, looked around and bought a house before we left.
Almost as soon as we came off the Interstate I said, "this is it". Drove back to Pa and put our house for sale, best thing we ever did ! Great hospital here for those of us getting older, low taxes, no state income tax, no nuisance car emission/safety inspections, car insurance 1/2 of what we paid up north.....the list of benefits goes on, this is the best place we ever lived and I am retired military. We have lived everywhere, you are gonna really like it here ! Thanks for choosing our town !!
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