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That's true for the listing agent, not the buyers agent. When we bought our Arizona house our agent pointed things out that I would have never thought of. Like don't buy a house that has the A/C unit outside the bedroom window. Coming from Alaska I had zero A/C experience.
Our agent was also very good at, from the time we hit the driveway of a house, pointing out things that she noticed (both good and bad). Her attitude was that no house is perfect, but we should have as much information as possible to help us make a better decision. And she had a real good eye about things that could be a potential problem.
I don't know what the commotion is all about. Satellite can be had for ~60/mo and is available everywhere with a clear view of the sky. We've had it for 5 years, and it works well.
Right now...snowing. Stills works well.
Apparently it's not that simple everywhere. We had limited internet in rural Utah, then when we moved out, we gave it up. Come to find out, the provider was over-booked so no more bandwidth available for new people. Checked into satellite, but the only bandwidth THERE available was not enough to even stream a movie.
So much for Hughesnet, Crash007.
Oh yeah, no cell phone service either. Nothing is a given, away from the big cities........
Two families have purchased homes in Goshen Valley area of Church Hill, TN - a beautiful area - if you don’t count the car junkyards— but were not advised by realtors of the lack of broadband internet service. As people with children, businesses, and those trying to get an education this is a sad state of affairs. Welcome to the modern world of East Tennessee!
Since I personally looked at homes in the Church Hill area I'll tell you about my experience with my real estate agent. The one who told me that in this area she sometimes has to cover a wide range of small towns and rural areas, and that she wasn't an expert on every area she would be showing me. That if I had questions or concerns that she wasn't able to answer that she would do her best to try to get the information for me. Because you know it would be kind of silly of me to expect her to know all the ins and outs of every little podunk town I looked at within an hour of Johnson City (where the job was).
I don't know what the commotion is all about. Satellite can be had for ~60/mo and is available everywhere with a clear view of the sky. We've had it for 5 years, and it works well.
Satellite internet does not work for people who needs fast upload speed for telecommuting work or exchanging gigabytes of data with collaborators.
The lack of fast internet connection speeds (at least 5Mbps upload and download) was the deal killer few months ago when we found a house meeting all of our must have criteria except fast broadband internet or 4G LTE cellphone reception.
BTW, I think this thread is pertinent to retirees like us who are looking to relocate after retiring. In our experience, one actually has to call the internet/cable providers for the area zipcode and asks whether they provide certain he minimum internet connection speeds to the home address of interest.
Two families have purchased homes in Goshen Valley area of Church Hill, TN - a beautiful area - if you don’t count the car junkyards— but were not advised by realtors of the lack of broadband internet service. As people with children, businesses, and those trying to get an education this is a sad state of affairs. Welcome to the modern world of East Tennessee!
Why didn't you go to the major internet providers' websites, plug in the address, and verify if it had broadband or not? If you're on Goshen Valley road or some road immediately off there, that's a very rural area. You could have gone several miles back toward Church Hill proper or Surgoinsville and had broadband. My ex lived off Long Hollow Road in Surgoinsville and had broadband in 2006 when she moved out there. If you're not within (or right next to) the Rogersville, Mt. Carmel, or Surgoinsville city limits, or right off 11-W, you probably won't have broadband in Hawkins County.
Charter Spectrum is probably the ISP for Church Hill. Plug your address in. The problem with broadband in those areas is that they are low income, low density, and it is not cost-effective to build out the infrastructure to such low density areas that will have relatively few customers. If you want me to check this out for you, send me a private message.
Hawkins County is a mess overall. The schools are bad. Crime is high. Services are few and far between. There are many areas where even Verizon doesn't have cell coverage. I wouldn't be surprised if Goshen Valley doesn't have municipal water. It sounds like you're not from the area and got in over your head out there.
Folks, this is exactly the kind of thing I harp on about when people (especially older people who may not be that tech savvy) from outside the area get the rose-colored glasses for pretty mountain views, the "country life," a "slower pace," etc. People make these kinds of moves oftentimes without doing any research at all, then get surprised when things suck out there. No wonder - you moved to a bad area, but at least it has pretty mountains
Since I personally looked at homes in the Church Hill area I'll tell you about my experience with my real estate agent. The one who told me that in this area she sometimes has to cover a wide range of small towns and rural areas, and that she wasn't an expert on every area she would be showing me. That if I had questions or concerns that she wasn't able to answer that she would do her best to try to get the information for me. Because you know it would be kind of silly of me to expect her to know all the ins and outs of every little podunk town I looked at within an hour of Johnson City (where the job was).
True, but a lot of older realtors, especially those serving rural areas, may not really know or have even asked the question. I can tell you who the ISPs are in each of the Tri-Cities, but not specific addresses. I have no idea who the ISP in Limestone, Telford, etc., is. At some point, you've got to do some legwork yourself.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MichiganGreg
I don't know what the commotion is all about. Satellite can be had for ~60/mo and is available everywhere with a clear view of the sky. We've had it for 5 years, and it works well.
Right now...snowing. Stills works well.
Depending on where exactly they are, they may be blocked by a hill or some such. I've been down that road many times, but it's been years. There are some places in this area even satellite GPS cannot be a signal to the sky.
The reality is that the companies that provide internet service will not expand into sparsely populated rural areas.
In rural southern Prince George's County, MD, twenty miles or so from the US Capitol, there is no high speed internet. The cable provider will not provide it, or cable service either, and Verizon won't provide FIOS. The capital cost to do so is more than projected revenues.
The problem mentioned in this thread is exacerbated by the expectations of rural pioneers moving from more urban environments and knowing nothing more about small towns and rural areas than what they saw watching Lassie, seeing Deliverance and looking at Norman Rockwell prints. All the while expecting to have the same services and amenities they left.
Isn't it up to the buyers to do a little bit of research and find out for themselves or confirm that there is broadband?
If broadband is that important to someone, you'd think they would spend 10 minutes and find out for themselves before purchasing in any area. Don't blame Eastern Tenn.
I wouldn't "blame east TN," as broadband has been here for years, in some locations. We had a cable modem (256k or 512k, but that was far better than dial-up) here in Kingsport in 1999 or 2000 growing up as part of a pilot program, and that rolled out to the general public not long after. Most towns my size
With that said, the counties east of Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg tourist belt receive basically no attention from the state government in Nashville for economic growth or development opportunities. From where I sit, I'm closer to the capitals of WV, KY, NC, and SC, than I am to Nashville. Metro Nashville spends and focuses on middle TN and Knoxville (to an extent), not rural mountain counties a half day's drive away. More investment would help these counties, but that's a chicken-and-egg deal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by North Beach Person
The reality is that the companies that provide internet service will not expand into sparsely populated rural areas.
In rural southern Prince George's County, MD, twenty miles or so from the US Capitol, there is no high speed internet. The cable provider will not provide it, or cable service either, and Verizon won't provide FIOS. The capital cost to do so is more than projected revenues.
The problem mentioned in this thread is exacerbated by the expectations of rural pioneers moving from more urban environments and knowing nothing more about small towns and rural areas than what they saw watching Lassie, seeing Deliverance and looking at Norman Rockwell prints. All the while expecting to have the same services and amenities they left.
Absolutely correct. The area they are talking about is not even all that remote. It's about five to ten minutes from a small town, which is about ten to fifteen minutes itself from where I work in Kingsport. However, there are few people living down that way and it's just not cost-effective for a build out.
You're exactly right on the "rural pioneers" thing. A lot of people from larger metro areas take things for granted. They do expect some sort of Norman Rockwell scenario, but Hawkins County is more about rural meth and opiate addicts, a lack of services, isolation, etc., that can quickly turn into a hellhole for a lot of people instead of some quaint throwback.
we have satellite internet; it's slow and limited and overpriced, but faster than dial-up.
they installed lines for cable and high speed internet on our street in October. We keep calling the company to sign up; they keep saying they don't offer it in our area. sigh.
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