Merriam Woods, MO (Branson, Rockaway Beach, Table Rock: mobile home, neighborhood, buying)

[duke3437]

I was looking through the posts and was wondering if anyone could give me an honest assessment of Merriam Woods. Everything I found seems to be negative (drugs, crappy roads, cheaply built housing etc.).

I found a good deal on a house there and was wondering if the city was really that bad?

Jobwise I know the situation around Branson. The house and car I have will be paid for, so I think I can make ends meet with what is available around there.

There is only me to support, no family.

All input welcome and thank you in advance for your help.

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by duke3437

I was looking through the posts and was wondering if anyone could give me an honest assessment of Merriam Woods. Everything I found seems to be negative (drugs, crappy roads, cheaply built housing etc.).

I found a good deal on a house there and was wondering if the city was really that bad?

Jobwise I know the situation around Branson. The house and car I have will be paid for, so I think I can make ends meet with what is available around there.

There is only me to support, no family.

All input welcome and thank you in advance for your help.

Merriam Woods has a definite character of its own. You have a complete mixture of every kind of house/trailer imaginable. There are $150,000 houses mixed in with single-wides that can't be worth $2,000. You have yards that are filled with every possible manner of trash and garbage (and dogs, and kids, and junker cars), right next to very nice double wide homes that are very well taken care of and have nicely landacaped yards. It is a total crap shoot. There are "nicer" parts where the majority of residences are presentable and there are "less nice" parts where you will have one rusted out mobile home after another.

I would not discourage buying there, however, you need to see the property (and the neighborhood) that you are buying into before you make a decision. I believe there are nicer parts of town that you can buy affordable housing in.

LakeJunkie? Are you there?

20yrsinBranson

[Lake Junkie]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

I would not discourage buying there, however, you need to see the property (and the neighborhood) that you are buying into before you make a decision. I believe there are nicer parts of town that you can buy affordable housing in.

LakeJunkie? Are you there?

20yrsinBranson

Hey. Sorry...been really busy!

Unfortunately, Merriam Woods/Rockaway Beach has gotten a "reputation" so that even tho' there are pockets of great, pockets of ok, pockets of just fine, pockets of wonderful, pockets of rundown junk...the entire mailing address gets dissed.

You absolutely need to see the property you're buying before you buy.
I will not help someone buy sight unseen.
That's crazy.

I personally considered buying in Rockaway Beach years ago...prior to "discovering" my little part of Table Rock Lake. It's not a bad place, and there are energizer-bunny folks who are committed to cleaning up, sprucing up, building up the area. I think it's only a matter of time...

And...in the matter of building quality...you need to look carefully and have inspections whatever you buy. Anywhere. Especially in an area that doesn't have building codes.

Nice to see you out, 20 yrs...isn't it 21 by now?

[20yrsinBranson]

Well, actually it's 22 but I haven't bothered changing my user name - brand recognition you know. :-)

Rumor is that the market is picking up. That's great news for everybody. Good to see you too.

20yrsinBranson

[ViktorVitorro]

Well, I just moved to the Merriam Village in june of this year, and will try to be as honest as I can. Yes, there are a lot of trailer houses in this area. It is the most affordable housing a lot of workers from Branson and surrounding area can afford. A lot of the newer houses in the area make a stark contrast on the area. Though there are more run down older trailer houses in Merriam woods, there are a rising number of newer double wides, and wood frame houses coming into the area. But I have to say with the honesty I promised, that the higher number are of run down, trashy looking older single and doublewides here. and as for the roads, most are gravel, potholed and unkept. Only the main road through the village going from Rockaway Beach to the east to 160 to the west, is well paved. As I undserstand, that is the main road kept clear during winter weather, so I am told to expect to have times of hibernation in the house when bad weather is here during the winter. Because there is little money in the village treasury to be used to clear other than the main county road, that is to be expected.