Looking for a good area for vacation property?? (Maryville, Jacksboro: RV parks, 2010)

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by Kitties of Domination

Am I the only person who has speculated on the affects of oxycontin and meth to what seems to be a sharp rise in crime in rural areas and small towns in the area?

I've thought of it. I like the country, but after living there for almost three years, I'm glad to be out of there. It wasn't like any "country" that I've ever known.

[Maclean]

Maynardville has a lot of land options and it is very close to Norris Lake. As for protecting the home while you are not there can be solved with as little as make good freinds with the closest neighbor to renting it out so there is a constant stream of people coming and going.
I bet there is a security compnay you could contract with to check on the place one a week.

Dandridge also has some good options.

[J&Em]

Kitties, of course it may or may not be one of several factors contributing to the 'desperate people' I alluded to. Rural does not always equate to a Meth lab, nor is it just around the TN mountains if that is what you meant with "in the area". Plenty of places all around the country have meth labs that you would not immediately realize were there. Friends of ours lived in an area transitioning between fairly rural and suburban in upstate NY. One day there was a fire and then a big police presence and then everyone found out there had been one helluva big meth lab right there. No robberies, no drunks or loitering, no kidnapping or cars stolen, no criminal activity that anyone knew of. Not even a suspicious character outside of the fact that the people there seemed to be sticking to themselves more than usual.

I think that when people have trouble making ends meet for whatever reason they will begin with crimes that have the least chance of getting caught and the best return. What could be easier than ripping off the outsider's home when that person is gone for weeks or months at time. Some metal can be sold for pretty good prices. Where I used to live the town had bulk trash pick up about 4 or 5 times a year. The numbers of people cruising the neighborhood the weekend before pickups was amazing. They would dismember just about anything to get a bit of metal and you would often have to go out and clean up all the debris from it. It was apparently well worth the gas and time to gather this stuff up, so imagine how well someone can "do" in a place that no one is watching and by the time they catch on you are long gone and have $$ in your pocket.

I live in one those small towns, have terrific neighbors and so fa don't feel like "those" people are around every corner.

Hik thanks for the vote of confidence. MbMouse took it one step better!

Gailli I think it totally depends on what brings you happiness. I am not a "shopper" nor do I care for crowds, been there done it, have the t-shirt to prove it. I prefer solitude and mountain views to crowds and traffic. It sounds like you have found the best of both worlds for your taste.

[hiknapster]

Well, I wasn't really talking about small towns. Yes, there are drugs everywhere. In Florida, you can find drug dealers and grow houses in beautiful neighborhoods.

But when I lived in the rural area of north Knox County, right at the Anderson County line, I found it to be much different than anything else I had ever experienced.

[kimhankhess]

Not feeling very confident about TN anymore, it never occured to me that I wouldn't be able to somehow keep the place safe, even by ADT or Brinks. By the time I am ready to move, I am sure prices will be much higher which is why I wanted buy now. In this economy (and with the way politics are going), I can't see my income really increasing over the next 10 years to match the cost of living or a increase in land prices. I can't have a RV because I live in a box, actually a barracks style 8 unit condo building and have no place to store it. We are not allowed to park anything but cars here, not even a rowboat... Plus the RVs I have seen are more than the property and mobile home combined, plus the poor 10 mpg gas mileage and paying to store it would be very expensive. I doubt if I will be down there long enough at any one time to meet neighbors, at least not at first since its school season now. I just can't believe that I shouldn't buy a vacation home due to vandalism, is it really that bad in TN in particular? I do have a friend that lives outside of Knoxville but I doubt if she could check on the place even weekly as she works fulltime too. I also know people that live way up in the foothills outside of Maryville and they did tell me that there is some arson going on of houses around there, I guess if someone doesn't like you. Its really sad...

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by kimhankhess

Not feeling very confident about TN anymore, it never occured to me that I wouldn't be able to somehow keep the place safe, even by ADT or Brinks. By the time I am ready to move, I am sure prices will be much higher which is why I wanted buy now. In this economy (and with the way politics are going), I can't see my income really increasing over the next 10 years to match the cost of living or a increase in land prices. I can't have a RV because I live in a box, actually a barracks style 8 unit condo building and have no place to store it. We are not allowed to park anything but cars here, not even a rowboat... Plus the RVs I have seen are more than the property and mobile home combined, plus the poor 10 mpg gas mileage and paying to store it would be very expensive. I doubt if I will be down there long enough at any one time to meet neighbors, at least not at first since its school season now. I just can't believe that I shouldn't buy a vacation home due to vandalism, is it really that bad in TN in particular? I do have a friend that lives outside of Knoxville but I doubt if she could check on the place even weekly as she works fulltime too. I also know people that live way up in the foothills outside of Maryville and they did tell me that there is some arson going on of houses around there, I guess if someone doesn't like you. Its really sad...

Please don't get the wrong impression about Tennessee. In this day and age, with drugs and the "me" attitude, things are bad all over. I still think you should buy a piece of land. Or better yet, just move here.

[J&Em]

I'm kind of perplexed. You want to buy very cheaply (even for TN prices) and get a mobile home, but you want it to be in a high rent, crime free place that is a popular vacation spot. You say you want to be near Maryville but then say you've heard there was arson here so you are afraid. It is hard not to wonder if maybe you haven't thought out some of the aspects of absentee home ownership in most parts of the USA, let alone TN.

Don't let any one person deter you with talk of Meth labs and crime. We live out in Maryville and left this house for a month at a time while we sold our house up north. Nothing happened. We were fortunate to have met some of the neighbors and they called us with weather updates and checked on the house for us, but no one would have noticed something very quickly if someone was determined to break in. The important thing is nothing happened We have left doors accidentally unlocked and nothing happened. The people here are not all criminals and deviants by any stretch of the imagination. In fact just the opposite, most are terrific by any standard. I am very happy we made the move.

It just does not make sense to assume that Mayberry is anywhere anymore. I doubt that there is any more crime here than wherever you are from in Ohio. In fact one of the homes I spoke of being broken into was in Ohio, outside of a fairly small town in a county not all that different from Blount County statistically speaking.

[Bones]

A few have stated, it is a problem ALL over the country with break ins. The key here is for an absentee owner, is to have some great neighbors that can keep an eye on your property when you are away...... Even this is not a 100% guarantee in this day and age..... I keep an eye on my absentee neighbors place across the lake, he comes down 8 or 9 weekends a year, but nothing happens around here. Could I leave home and leave it unlocked - yes, would I - no.....

[kimhankhess]

Its not that I want to buy cheaply, I just don't need very much. I don't need a big house, in fact the opposite, I don't mind something that needs work, its mostly just the outside enviroment that I am interested. I really don't want to be in a popular vacation spot, just the opposite. I guess I just got scared and thought that if I bought where other vacation homes are, it would be safer or something. I just want a piece of land to sit on in the sun, where I can someday go off the grid on. Something with no restrictions so that when I do move in 10 years, I can put up solar panels or a windmill, put in a garden, have a horse instead of a car if I want. That probably sounds weird but if you knew where I live, you would understand. My family is all from the south, Alabama and southern TN, although not in my generation, and I really feel I don't belong up here. I get sick in the winter from lack of sunlight and have to take prescription vit D pills and I get very depressed. I actually live in "YuppieVille, Ohio" (oh, thats mean I guess) and hate it. There are gross financial excesses in my neighborhood, snooty stores and restaurants etc. The neighborhoods near our complex have 500K houses. This place is full of wastefulness. This probably sounds like a weirdo tirade but I am a gun-lugging liberal (and I know TN is not that liberal) that just wants to get back to real dirt instead of a asphalt jungle. I live in the Shopping Mecca of Ohio. Yuck. If it were not for my two kids being firmly entrenched in the school system, and me being a only child with my parents still living, I would be moving NOW. And here we never lock our doors, ever. Its not that we don't have crime, I am sure we do, but we don't hear about it, we don't know each other, nobody knows anyone here, and nobody can think outside of their own Lexus. I am getting a place somewhere and I only hope that if someone breaks in, they leave the roof and the toilet, thats all I need. Oh wait, Ive been camping, I don't even need the toilet

[DubbleT]

Kim,
I sent you a DM with a link to some properties I came across in my own housing search. Thought they might be worth a quick online look at least.