TN Transplants…Your Story Please

[marmac]

I got some advice that proved helpfull from a retirement magazine regarding---narrowing choices

They recommended comparing every city/area on a one on one basis. By that , they meant if you pick 6 places--------you visit the first one , then compare it to #2.
If #2 wins out, you scratch #1 and forget it. (and so on)

They stated coming home and comparing all 6 gets confusing, and by going -one on one-- you will be coming home with one choice as the rest are eliminated.

[Pam& Bill]

Our process kind of just came together.Bill as living in Mississippi, a recent victim of Katrina. I was living in upstate NY, Bill and I had met online at a support site. Bill wanted to get out of Ms., so he was researching like mad but he had no idea where he wanted to end up. Me, I was bored and restless and unsatisfied trying to live in NY state any longer, so I was ripe for a change.
So I flew to Ashville, NC and we stayed 2 days in Asheville. Then we headed over to Pigeon Forge and rented a cabin for a week. The mountains and the cabin worked their magic. Bill and I fell in love and we decided that we liked the energy of Pigeon Forge compared to Ashville. So we spent the last 3 days in Pigeon Forge looking at houses. We continued working with the realtor and we made one more trip down here and put money on a condo in Sevierville, because we thought we wanted to live in Sevierville and PF area. Well life has a way of throwing a few curve balls and Bill had medical problems so we lost the condo. But that turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we hit bumper to bumper traffic on our next trip down and we decided a tourist area wasn't what we wanted. So each trip was invaluable because we gained insight into what we wanted or didn't want. We knew we wanted to move to Tn. because we both loved the area and the people here. So Bill went online researching places to rent and we decided that we'd pack up and move here as soon as we could.
We found an apartment online that accepted pets, furnished and would do a short term lease. So we loaded the pick up truck and moved here.
The way we learned the area once we got here was mapquest and the yellow pages. Mapquest isn't always up to date and we got lost plenty but that is how we learned Knoxville and surrounding areas. This web site also is a great resource for finding out where events are happening or a town would sound neat and we'd take a afternoon exploring.
For the last year we've rented a house in Dandridge, but we know we want to go back to Knoxville for various personal reasons. So my advice to you is to be open to changing your plans. The one way we use as an indicator if we liked a town or area, was to stop in a local restaurant and chat up our server, the person behind the cash register and go to the local grocery store. This way gave us a impression of the area in general. Also use the local taxis. Taxi drivers are a wealth of information on local places or locals in general. I can't express how the cab drivers in Knoxville told me about differents parts of the city to check out or good restaurants or even good blues clubs. There has never been a lull in any conversation with a cab driver in a cab I've taken. In fact I am on a first name basis with a bunch of them. I know their schedules, have their cell numbers and I call them direct whenever I need a cab. That wouldn't have happened in NY! Talk to everyone you can, everywhere you happen to be.You learn alot that way from the biggest snow storm to hit this area in decades to whats happening festival and event wise and what areas/neighborhoods are having drugs and crime creep in. Most people around here are happy to chat with you and tell you about the area they live in, theres alot of pride you can tap into. A good question to start off is Were you born and raised around here? We've rented and explored and talked peoples ears off and after a year we know Knoxville is for us to buy our permanent "retirement" home.
Pam

[srinne3]

I agree with Pam & Bill.Talk to all the people you can, they can sure fill you in on the area. I'd been through Gatlinburg area back in the seventies, and I knew someday I'd try to come back to Tn, but not a tourist area. We're from the country, and like our peace and quiet. I just wish I'd checked out Madisonville before we left, although it's smaller than Sweetwater, and we're inbetween the 2 just minutes away. By this time next week, we'll be on our way!

[LauraC]

One thing I forgot to mention - bring a camera so when you get home, the sequence of the photos will be a memory jogger as to where you were.

Also, when you visit, go into the gas station mart and buy a town/county street map. When you get home, you will use that street map a lot:

1) if you haven't bought property yet.

2) when you read crime stories in the local newspaper to see which neighborhoods are bad.

3) if you know where you'll be living, to see how close you will be to town activites you read about.

You might even pull it out if some building/road construction is being planned to see just how close you will be/might be living to it (for example, a planned new school, hotel, road widening, rehab center, prison, firehouse, etc.).

[srinne3]

When my daughter & I went on our house hunting trip, we took a ton of pix. There were things she took pix of that I didn't, and vice versa so we were covered (hopefully). Somehow I had only taken a pix of 1/2 of the kitchen, but she took a pix of the other half. I found the Welcome center in sweetwater very helpful, I was able to pick up street, county, and state maps (all we had was my atlas that we drove down with). I'm just glad once we get off at sweetwater, there's only 15 min and 3 turns to get to our house, as by that time I'm sure it'll be dark after making numerous stops to check on our babies. One thing I've found out, if you're giving your dogs doggie dope for a loooong road trip, check with your vet WELL ahead of time(weeks) to make sure the stuff is available. I waited till last week to check on that, and the manufacturer has the product on back order, so the vet had nada. Still on back order as of today, and other vets don't like to give that medicine to dogs that do not go to that particular clinic. So my vet is going give me a sample of his backup medicine for these cases and having me test one of the huskies over the weekend. If it works well, I'll be picking up the stuff on monday, which is truck pick up and load day. I hope all goes well, as I do NOT relish the thought of transporting 5 huskies without doggie dope, let alone the miniature dachsund and the jack russell/beagle mix. Lord; please just get me down there...4 days to liftoff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tek_Freek]

Good advice here. We did a lot of the same things on our excursion.

When we found a lot we thought we liked we got lucky. There was a house being built two lots away so we were able to visit it at different times of the day. The workers didn't mind us as along as we stayed out of the way. This allowed us to spend time in the immediate area at different times of the day. my favorite was dusk. The reason we wanted to visit the house was a small lake behind it. The tree growth in the area is so thick you can't see it from the road.

Two things I noticed that really impressed me:

Quiet. We live not too far from a major interstate mix master. It wasn't very noisy when we moved here. That has changed.

The birds. If we end up in TN I am going to have to relearn bird calls.

We bought the lot. We are now considering looking at the same town Laura C is living in for all the same reasons she gives plus the proximity to Knoxville for shopping, libraries, concerts, all the amenities that come with a bigger city, etc.

[piedmont]

* What type of road trip did you do? Pick a location and just start driving?

Work-related conferences and meetings + a weekend trip before we moved into a corp. apartment.

* How did you explore a city/town to get a true feel of the place?

Online research + a lot of driving around 6 counties once we moved to the area to temporary housing.

* How did you narrow your search to a particular county/city?

We were looking for something very specific, so we had to remain fairly open on location (large rural property). However, we did eliminate a lot of possibilities by driving by listings and areas.

* How long did you visit each area?

Various. Sometimes minutes, sometimes days!

* Did you use a local Realtor?

Yes. It took us a couple of tries to find the right one, but we had wonderful support from the realtor we chose.

* If you used a source like Realtor.com, what was useful and what was not?

I found the Knoxville area MLS site Find Homes By Area to be far more useful than realtor.com. I would look for other such mls sites for the areas of interest in TN.

* If you had to do it again, what would you do differently?

Moving just takes time and energy. It was helpful that one of us had more time to devote to the mundane tasks of property searching and finding out about a new area, because when taking on a new job, one is busy enough learning about that! If a couple is starting new jobs immediately, it is really difficult to do much adjusting the area.

* Was there one thing that made the difference?

We sold our old house quickly, so that made it possible for us to jump on the right property with few contingencies.

* Anything else you want to share?

In general, real estate is represented quite differently here than where we are from (NC). Real estate agents also seem more variable in their understanding on their role. We saw a lot of junk that was described as gems (and I don't mean the usual positive sales pitch, but actual physical inaccuracies). Pricing is also more inflated and speculative here vs. NC--even though overall, it is cheaper than the triangle.

[Pocketplayer]

Thanks for all who participated and shared their stories!!!