Thinking of moving to TN? (Gatlinburg: fit in, real estate, lease) - Tennessee - City-Data Forum

mrs1885 · 10-09-2010, 08:52 PM

Please don't ask if it's right for you or your family or your situation. Please don't ask us if it's a nice place to live. Please don't ask what town you should move to. These are questions that are so very individual to every single person. No one can make those decisions for you.

TN has different areas that are different as most states. Some parts of the state have lots of mountains or lots of lakes, or both. Some is mostly flat land. Some has larger cities and others small pockets of communities of just 100 people or less.

Some areas have good schools, others not so much. Some areas are very inexpensive to buy a home, other places are way up into the high 6 figures and some 7 figures.

The best way to decide is to come visit. Take a week here and drive to different areas. Even within the Cumberland Plateau you'll find very different areas. You really need to see yourself and talk to the people that live here. Figure out what a community is like and see if it's a community you fit into. Not a community that has a nice view that you can change and make better. We don't want change. No one welcomes anyone with open arms if they're going to try to 'change' the area and make it perfect. If it's not perfect for you as it is, keep looking.

For me, I've found my perfect place in TN. I met the people and adored them. We fit in here. We didn't look to change anything. Because of that we were welcomed. But we had to come up here and look around to make sure it's what we wanted.

I did a ton of research before getting in the car. I found over 100 homes - easily - that I liked. I'd come back to the CD site here and pull the info on the towns those houses were in. After I had all the towns info pages printed out I started narrowing my search.

Which house had most of the things I wanted and was looking for. Which of the towns had the criteria that was most important to me. Then I organized them in those orders and got here and started looking in that order as well. I saw less than a dozen homes. The one I chose as the most likely for us is the one we bought after we'd seen it twice.

I guess the point is, come to TN and see if it's for you. Do your research. If you find a town you're interested in, ask about it specifically on here. Don't just ask us where you should move or what is the prettiest town. Everyone has their own idea of what's pretty or what town is ideal to them. Those are things you need to decide on your own.

RamblinRoseRanch · 10-11-2010, 06:04 AM

Ditto.

When we were looking for a place in NM, we sat down and decided what was important for OUR family. Then I started researching. Via this forum and local newspapers, many of which are available online. THEN we started asking questions. Because we'd done our research ahead of time, these were specific questions- not like the ones the op mentioned.
Scoured real estate listings, even though we knew we'd be renting at first, it still gave us an idea of what to expect. Read the job listings, school ratings- you name it.
Once we settled on a few potential areas, then we took a trip and visited to see if the chosen places lived up to what we'd found out and been told.
Relocating isn't something that should be done on just the advice of a stranger. That's setting yourself up for certain failure.

One more thing. PLEASE be realistic. There is no Utopia. You may get a mountain town with friendly neighbors, but it's not going to be close to major shopping, with a walkable downtown, and on a lake side lot. And it's not going to be for pennies on the dollar. There are reasonable properties out there- typically suburban or a small town feeling neighborhood with a nice (not fancy, but nice and sometimes updated) house for under 100,000. You are not going to find acreage with a home for under that in most places. And if you do, there's a reason why.

That said, if you do decide to move to TN, welcome. Just remember why you left where you did in the dust and don't try to form our state into that.

BarbBr · 10-11-2010, 09:52 AM

That's all well and good, but I don't have months of time to look at the entire eastern coast. It's nice to at least narrow your area down before you visit so you can spend the most time in the areas people who live there suggest. I do plan on visiting but I now live 10-12 hours away and work full-time so I need some initial help.

Thanks to all the others who are willing to help.

Barb

J&Em · 10-11-2010, 10:44 AM

Barb you may not like the advice but, as someone who did exactly that kind driving under the same conditions, I know it is based on the truth. Reality stinks sometimes. No one but you, and you alone, can possibly tell what are the "right" places to drive to because everyone has very different views of what is right. One person's "hick town" is the next person's "quaint town." One person's out in the sticks is the next person's "suburban." A short drive here might be long haul where you live now.

We drove well over 10 hours to get to one end of the area we thought might work and then drove for several days to at least see as many towns as we could fit in from one end of eastern TN to the other. Several towns that looked great on paper, with similar numbers and views turned out to be big disappointments and others were different from what we expected and only 2 or 3 came close to everything we thought we wanted. We asked questions here, too, to see if we had just gone down the wrong roads. Then we came back and took a closer look at the towns we had liked the most and had gotten the best responses about. It took another trip to narrow down the part of that town and another to meet with a real estate agent after using the internet to find homes to buy. You can do this in 3 day weekends if you worry about vacation time being taken.

If you have specific questions based on your very specific needs you may get some helpful answers but you can't expect people to narrow it down for you so you can make one trip to find the perfect place. Even with multiple visits some people find what they thought the place they picked was like and what it really was like when living there were very different.

BarbBr · 10-11-2010, 04:08 PM

I do not expect anyone to pick a place for me. We have been through parts of eastern TN a number of times but not familiar with all the cities. I just wanted to maybe narrow it down a little below Gatlinburg to start looking. We are coming to WNC later this month to look and wanted to spend a little time looking in TN. I can see this board isn't as helpful as I thought since everyone needs a novel of what exactly people are looking for before they will reply. Thanks all for nothing. I won't bother you again.

Barb

FLORIDA TO NIOTA 2010 · 10-11-2010, 07:23 PM

Hello BarbBr.
We would need a little more info so that someone can point you in the right direction. Maybe give you some ideas. And the rest is up to you. IMO all of East Tennessee is a beautiful and that makes it very hard to narrow it down. I wanted to live in Southeast TN but also wanted to be close enough to visit Northeast TN. And it's always best to rent with a short lease look around for the area that you like best. Rent again to really get a feel for the area before you purchase.

Info:
hobbies
mountains or no mountains
water or no water
little bit of snow or a little bit more snow
city or country
job or no job (transfering , if so what city)
acreage or subdivision

That's all I can think of right now.
Good luck in your search.

Bones · 10-11-2010, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BarbBr

I do not expect anyone to pick a place for me. We have been through parts of eastern TN a number of times but not familiar with all the cities. I just wanted to maybe narrow it down a little below Gatlinburg to start looking. We are coming to WNC later this month to look and wanted to spend a little time looking in TN. I can see this board isn't as helpful as I thought since everyone needs a novel of what exactly people are looking for before they will reply. Thanks all for nothing. I won't bother you again.

Barb

Barb.....we can't read your mind on your wants and needs....

Sooooo, from your statement....I think WNC will be a better fit for y'all....

J&Em · 10-11-2010, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bones

Barb.....we can't read your mind on your wants and needs....

Sooooo, from your statement....I think WNC will be a better fit for y'all....

Wow, blast of the old rude NY just came through... I forgot how bad that was, thanks for reminding me why I don't miss it.

Considering the amount of time I spent to answer you in your own thread with the most likely places to look into without any acknowledgment I'd say you'll be much better off anywhere else. The normal politeness here would be too toxic for you to handle.

Pam& Bill · 10-11-2010, 09:03 PM

Is Barb a NYer? Ha, get used to your tantrums being ignored because something doesn't go your way so you flounce out. Yeah, Bones is right, WNC will suit you just fine. You'll never be happy in Tn. with that attitude. Auntie Em, I'm with you, I don't miss the rude NY attitude at all either.
Barb, bless your heart.
Pam

RamblinRoseRanch · 10-12-2010, 04:43 AM

Barb, this post wasn't pointed at you. We on the TN forum are hit DAILY with posts saying 'I want to move to TN! Where is best for me?' With little or no background information. Either that, or posts expecting Mayberry or wanting to live like kings on a little income. People can be very unrealistic and well, it sort of makes you not want to help any more. Particularly when they get mad that you can't handpick their new homes for them. Like you did.