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Old 01-08-2018, 09:44 PM
ptt
 
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We bought our ‘ dream retirement home’ 8 years ago. We renting it out ever since. My husband wants to retire at 55 and the house will pay off by then. But Lately, we have a second thoughts. That house is no longer our dream home. We are not even sure if we going to live there anymore. We may just stay where we are right now (Houston) but move closer to downtown or Austin.
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Old 01-09-2018, 05:19 AM
 
17,320 posts, read 11,192,172 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Serious Conversation View Post
I don't know about sight unseen, but I see a lot of limited research.

I'm from northeast Tennessee. We get a lot of attention from retirees, many of whom have clearly done next to no research about what it's like to live in the local area. They get this idea of some sort of cross between Andy Griffith and Dolly Parton, but the reality is that most of the folks here are uneducated, unhealthy, unproductive, and incapable of the jobs of today or tomorrow. Many have profound substance abuse problems, mental health problems criminal records, and domestic violence issues.

Retirees often want the following:

1) CHEAP - in all caps, thinking east TN is some sort of cheap haven. We're more expensive than most of the rural and small town Midwest, and depending on where you are, we can easily get as expensive as mainline cities like Charlotte or Indianapolis.

They see the lack of income taxes and pile in here, but our sales tax is roughly 10%. Car insurance is nearly triple on the same vehicle I had in Indiana, same coverage and carrier. The increase in grocery prices over Indiana is substantial. Virtually any consumer good at retail will be more expensive here than in Charlotte, Knoxville, or Indianapolis, due to a lack of selection and competition.

2) Safe. Uh, no - northeast TN is not safe in many rural areas and small towns. Crime data proves otherwise. Some small towns in northeast TN, like Newport, can run with Memphis, St. Louis, and Baltimore in crime rate. Rural areas are often chock full of opiate/meth abuse, property crime related to drugs, and domestic violence. I'd never raise a family here in east TN. With some exceptions, the place is a drug den.

3) Pretty views. Yes, we have them. Lake or river access? You want it? We have it....at a price. Want a modern American house you see in most suburban cities here? Expect to pony up at least half a million. But we can put you up in some crappy 1000 sq. ft bungalow in an undesirable area for $100,000.

Once you get to be affluent enough, you can simply buy your way out of the culture and surround yourself with other affluent retirees from rich areas outside of Tennessee. See Tellico Village. Otherwise, folks are likely going to be disappointed when they get here. I can't imagine moving from a nice place in NoVA or Maryland and coming down here to overdose alley.
I hope you don't mind my asking a couple of questions. Did you retire and move to eastern Tenn or is that where you're originally from? I see you lived in Indiana. Did you move because of weather? If you moved there to retire, did you not do enough research? Do you plan on moving away if it's possible for you to do so?
No one should have to live where you dislike a place so much. I hope you'e able to find somewhere more suitable and move there.

Last edited by marino760; 01-09-2018 at 06:05 AM..
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Old 01-09-2018, 07:20 AM
 
Location: TN/NC
34,944 posts, read 31,079,407 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marino760 View Post
I hope you don't mind my asking a couple of questions. Did you retire and move to eastern Tenn or is that where you're originally from? I see you lived in Indiana. Did you move because of weather? If you moved there to retire, did you not do enough research? Do you plan on moving away if it's possible for you to do so?
No one should have to live where you dislike a place so much. I hope you'e able to find somewhere more suitable and move there.
I'm originally from here and will probably be moving in the next year or two. I've lived in Indianapolis, Des Moines, upstate South Carolina, and metro Boston for about three months total. All of them are much nicer than here, in different ways. I intend to be out of here no later than the start of 2020. Frankly, my personal life is a lot worse here than it ever was in Indiana or Iowa.

The only reason I remain here for now is that I have a fairly well paying, low stress job, with a good manager and a good customer base. I had two much higher stress jobs in Indianapolis. Not being stressed from work helps make living here a lot more tolerable.

A lot of prospective retirees from up north think that we have nearly no winter down here. Compared to the mountains of NH, for instance, no, we don't have a winter. Still, our average temperature (high+low/2 then that averaged for every day) for January has been 17 according to the news last night. We haven't had a comfortable day reliably above 40 since before Christmas. This morning there is a lovely sheet of black ice on the roads. We don't get a lot of sun in the winter. Our winter is only nominally better than southern Indiana and Ohio, for instance, but a lot of prospective retirees seem to think it's 50 and sunny and good golfing weather every day. What we've had isn't normal but neither is the sunny golfing weather.

IMO, housing prices are high for what you get. With the obvious exception of metro Boston, the other areas I've lived in have generally had much newer housing at a similar price point compared to what I can get a relatively old, dated house here for. No, most of the housing here that is older isn't some nice turn of the century Victorian, they're mostly small, nondescript bungalows in the city around 1,000 - 1,200 sq. ft that were built to house manufacturing workers, or nonupdated split foyers from the 70s/80s in the suburban areas. There has been very little building in the past twenty years. If you want cheap and are fine with a rundown, small, boxy house from the 40s/50s, we can do that. If you want to live in a modern, typical suburban style home that you'd find in regular suburbs of major cities, you better be looking at a budget of $250,000 - $300,000 to start. Mountain/lake views will be more.

Junk house at a cheap price.

https://www.trulia.com/property/5032...sport-TN-37660

Regular suburban home.

https://www.trulia.com/property/5032...-City-TN-37615

See the difference there? Yes, you can do cheap, but no one is going to want to live like that. While by no means super expensive, it is not nearly as cheap as many retirees from out of the area think, and living in a normal suburban lifestyle is not much cheaper here than in Charlotte. A lot of retirees are completely ignorant of the area and unrealistic, thinking you can home #2 for the price of home #1.

I know quite a few people who had medical conditions that were not able to be treated locally. Folks in that situation are often referred to Duke or Vanderbilt. Both are a half day's drive away. Many people don't even think of that.

I work 8-5. I have on-call responsibilities. My office overlooks a used car lot across the street and the closest thing to us is a mostly vacant K-Mart lot. I don't see the pretty mountains on a day to day basis, but I sure do see Eastman and Domtar's belching smokestacks when I drive into and out of Kingsport every day. A cubicle here might as well be a cubicle in Rust Belt Ohio.

When I moved back here, I thought I'd do more outside activities compared to Indiana, but I'm really not. At best, I get to go hiking or similar two or three times a month. During the summer, it's generally a bit more with the longer evenings. I haven't really been in the woods since November.

Maybe if I was retired and could afford a $750,000, modern home overlooking the mountains or on South Holston Lake and could leisurely sip coffee as the sun comes up instead of having to commute into a crime filled, drugged out, Rust Belt town, my outlook might change. Still, this place is far from the Mayberry or Pigeon Forge brochure a lot of retirees seem to think it is.
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Old 01-09-2018, 07:33 AM
 
Location: Philadelphia/South Jersey area
3,677 posts, read 2,550,461 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marcandme View Post
I would never move to a place sight unseen. However, when you are considering three or four states, and not sure of the areas, you do have to weed some out. What better place to get some advice from those who have been there, done that, then good old City Data
For us, we would pick a few areas for a stay and play type deal and go for a week at a time to see if it is for us
lol, I actually got into a virtual argument with someone on the South Carolina boards who said it's possible to get all the information you need on a neighborhood via on line
So I think there are folks who up and move sight unseen.

for me though, I'm beginning my two year research. In February I'm heading to Savannah to get a feel for that city. It's on my top three.

Hopefully by 2020 I'll have stayed a few different spots and even after that I plan on renting for a while before committing.
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Old 01-09-2018, 07:37 AM
 
18,671 posts, read 33,286,569 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by meo92953 View Post
I researched for a couple of years. Checked on Maine (winters too harsh), Ohio, again, winters, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, Nevada, Tennessee & Arizona.

It came down to finances & allergies in the end & I chose Arizona. A part of me still wants to investigate Tennessee & I will be visiting there in the spring but, I really like where I'm living & it will be dependent on the summer here, whether it will be too hot for me or not.
...
If I considered Arizona, I'd simply assume that the summers would be for me like winters elsewhere are for people- you adjust the thermostat and stay in and do indoor things. It's how I came to view East Coast summers where I am now for three more months- I'd wouldn't make any plans, I'd pick up extra work, and I'd complain about the humidity. In the recent cold freeze for two weeks, I did the same, but it didn't affect my mood, just my choice of what to wear to work. Humidity makes me crazy with misery and that would be true anywhere. It was the first impetus for my move to mountain Colorado in retirement (and my many vacations there).

It's when I disliked the Caribbean, Hawaii and Florida for winter vacations that I figured humidity and summer were my issues climate-wise. I wasn't looking for a place to retire to, since I expected to retire in place in eastern Mass. And take vacations to mountain Colorado. And pick up some work in the summer. Ans and and.

If I hadn't been so taken with this one area of Colorado (visited many times since 1988) I would not be moving in retirement, but probably trying to figure out how to spend humid summers in retirement. I never thought it was a requirement to move when retired unless you were sure you couldn't afford to stay where you lived while working. I was lucky that this one area kept calling to me. (As I remind myself 14 more shifts to retirement and three months to moving).
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Old 01-09-2018, 07:39 AM
 
Location: Philadelphia/South Jersey area
3,677 posts, read 2,550,461 times
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I think one of the issues is that us retirees often expect Nirvana. we've dreamed of retiring and relocating for so long we forget that the places we are going have issues just like the place we left.
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Old 01-09-2018, 08:09 AM
 
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Everything is a compromise. I picked what I could afford and what was within my comfort zone. Camelot is mythology.
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Old 01-09-2018, 08:23 AM
 
Location: TN/NC
34,944 posts, read 31,079,407 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eliza61nyc View Post
lol, I actually got into a virtual argument with someone on the South Carolina boards who said it's possible to get all the information you need on a neighborhood via on line
So I think there are folks who up and move sight unseen.

for me though, I'm beginning my two year research. In February I'm heading to Savannah to get a feel for that city. It's on my top three.

Hopefully by 2020 I'll have stayed a few different spots and even after that I plan on renting for a while before committing.
I wonder if people who say that have ever moved in their lives.

I think a person needs to spend at least a week in an area, preferably over a couple of trips, to determine if a place is right for them.

I've talked to numerous people wanting to relocate to very rural counties around here for that "country Tennessee life." They really need to book a hotel there (if you can find one nearby) and check things out. People often get caught up on pretty views or whatever, but fail to do things you'd do in your daily life.

Check out the grocery store. See if it meets the need. Try to find a doctor in your area. See how far it is to the closest hospital. Check service maps for cell/internet service and whatever else you need. That type of thing.

There was recently a thread that started on the retirement forums about the lack of broadband service on a rural road that was near me. My family had a Christmas party in a community center about a mile from the road that was mentioned in the OP. This is what it looked like. If you drive through an area that looks like this and can't bother to check to see if it has broadband or other services, then you're planning to fail.

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Old 01-09-2018, 08:24 AM
 
1,322 posts, read 1,681,702 times
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Originally, when I moved to FL, I had been going there for years on vacation. The area was growing. It was safe. I saw a lot of opportunities there. I liked the weather. It was easy to make friends, I found a good job. The real estate market was affordable. There really wasn't much reason not to move. The downside was that the entire town closed down at nights, on Christmas, and on Sunday. But over the years that changed too, shopping became plentiful, the city ran 24-hours.

With all that growth came change. It became overcrowded. Crime skyrocketed. Medical care was subpar. Real Estate prices had risen above what most people could comfortably afford. It didn't fit my needs anymore.

I approached this move like I approached my move to FL. I wanted a place that people were moving into. My thinking was that the population wouldn't be insular. I would be able to make friends easily among the newcomers. There would be work opportunities and growth.

I wanted good medical care, low crime, affordable housing. I checked the MLS listings daily to learn the real estate market, I read the local newspaper, I talked to people on line who lived here. I visited several times before moving. I checked the prices at the grocery stores, gas stations, dry cleaners, restaurants. I visited the clothing stores, shoe stores, and anything else that I needed in my life.

Time causes change. My life is different now. This city has grown and is different. Crime is becoming a big factor here too. Real estate prices have risen very quickly. Most of the reasons that caused me to leave FL have arrived here.
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Old 01-09-2018, 08:33 AM
 
221 posts, read 191,988 times
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Challenges of where to relocate after retiring were approached in orderly fashion. Task to be enjoyed, time frame encompassed about 5-6 calendar flips. Funding in place and going to plan, visits to dreamland were made during good as bad seasonal months.

Sources as Places Rated Almanac, bi-monthly publication Where To Retire, Chamber of Commerce brochures and forum opinions, mainly CD, educated me. Discoveries whittled the list to a Top 3. From there it became a matter of what sour aspect turned me off the most.

Decision was comfortable because the initial, gut feeling location, ended up #1. Gave myself the final year of work to plan and was in route 24 hours after I last punched out. Bad weather events and lack of true friends found FL in the rearview mirror- the new AZ address met expectations (had visited the area at least a dozen times over a 25 year span). And two lifelong friends are within 30 minutes. Covering the bases, if you will, allows few disappointments. No dismay in my selection (approaching four years).
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