Crossville, here we come

[2mares]

Originally Posted by grisabel

Is it common practice to buy a home without a closing attorney?

I believe the lender has their own attorneys that run title searches and take care of the legalities. These fees are included in closing cost, so normally you do not have to hire your own attorney.

[as3369]

A closing attorney is not necessary; however, if it gives you peace of mind at the closing table and you desire a legal mind there to answer any of your questions, then a few hundred dollars in lawyer fees when you are sometimes talking about an investment of $100's of thousands of dollars is neglible in the scheme of things.

[PatJeff]

Originally Posted by Lucky Eddy

After reading a lot of threads, spending time around Maryville, Cookevile, Crossville and Fairfield Glade, and traveling on a lot of roadway in Tennessee over the last three years, we have decided on Crossville. Tennessee sure has a lot of beautiful areas and friendly people, even with us Floridians moving in.

We made an offer on an existing home, which has been accepted, so soon we will be on the south side of Crossville in Cumberland County. With a home still in Florida and the housing market not so good there, we will be Floridians for some time yet. We hope to spend a lot of time In Crossvile this summer and every other chance we get. We have already attended the church we plan to be part of and hope to find places to volunter our time once we're settled.

I have a question for those informed about home owners title insurance. Is it foolish not to get it? If a title search shows everything ok, is that enough? The title insurance seems like a lot of $$ and the web sites promoting it are all related to the insurance industry, so a biased opinion. Their examples of cases that needed it are rather extreme. One financial magazine recently was against it for most situations. In our situation the home is only 7 years old, so not much history on the structure.

Anywho, we will soon have a home in Cumberland County (Alpine Lodge in Cookeville will be out of some revenue as we have spent a lot of nights there) and wanted to share with all of you that have been so helpful. Thanks to everyone.

Lucky Eddy not sure if you have moved already but would like to know how you like it.. This is the area that we are looking to retire in 2 years.. We were looking at Cumberland Cove in Monterey online and the cookeville/crossville area.. Do you like it.. how is the medical there,hospitals/doctors.. Shopping and weather.. Thankyou

[lae60]

Hello PatJeff,

I am not Eddy, but thought I would answer from my view. Last Spring I went to Tn from my home in CA. Initially I was looking a t property in Cookeville to build a house on when I retire in 2017. We stayed at a timeshare on a lake in Cumberland County and my kids liked the smaller community in Crossville. They also, after looking at lots of property on rivers, liked the idea of living on a lake instead. Se we switched 1/2 way through the week and looked at lake property in the area and liked Lake Tansi. We ended up buying an ugly fixer house that was too good to pass up.

We have visited 3 times so far and love the community and our neighbors. The people have been very nice and welcoming to me and my 2 kids.

Last visit my son cut off the end of his thumb with a table/butter knife at about 1 in the morning. (Yep, I was asleep and he decided to share a banana with his sister in the middle of the night... So I am writing about this to let you know that we went to the Cumberland County Hospital, so can report on it.) They were very fast and the physician assistant that worked on my son's finger was very good with a scared 11 year old. He had trouble getting the bleeding stopped and used a surgical pad in the end. We then waited a hour or two so make sure the bleeding did not start again. They were very good and very professional. While we were with the PA they must have called my insurance as I was told all was ok and we could leave when they were done with ensuring the thumb was not bleeding anymore. (My insurance has no co-pay for emergency services for the first 24 hours.) I thought that they may make me pay something, but they said all was good and we could leave...so even their billing was on-target. Often I have to pay to leave then get a refund later.

The hospital did have a few other folks there too, one with a couple of police escorts that stayed with him.

I would give the hospital a great rating And I was very glad they were open 24 hours a day with a fully staffed emergency room Oh, and they gave me a choice of the PA or waiting a few more minutes (15?) for the dr.

Shopping, Crossville has several grocery stores. We have tried 3 so far, plus WalMart and Big Lots have food too. Being from Ca I am used to getting organic veggies/fruit delivered to my home weekly and none of the fruit/veggies in the stores so far measured up in freshness. I know they have a farmer's market so when we move there full time we will hit that up for fresher fruit/veggies. That would be my major complaint/concern about the food type stores.

For other things there is Lowes, we go there a lot and they are good and there is an Aces Hardware. We did not go there yet, but will eventually. They are much smaller in size than Loews. Crossville has Sears, K-Mart, Big Lots, Wal-Mart and a billion Dollar General/Family Dollar stores. Lots of other smaller stores too. So far we have been able to find everything we need.

There seem to be lots of restaurants. None are five star type, but we do not go to those anyways

Cookeville has lots more for stores/restaurants as its a 30,000 population town compared to Cookeville's 3500 population. My guess is that Cumberland Cove may have less, but I am not sure on that. All are close enough that in a hour you can drive from one to another.

Weather...when we went in April, it was nice and warm, easy to be outside most days, but every so often a day or two of real cold weather would crop up. May and June were both nice warm but not hot weather. Kids spent every day swimming in the lake. It was not humid, but it likely was later in the Summer. We did not use the air conditioner. Oct/Nov was nice outside for most of the time, but the last few days it got real cold, freezing temperatures, windy, even snowing a little. We used the heater the whole time, but at first it was mainly for the cold nights. During the day time the heater did not come on. Later when the cold snap came the heater was on during the daytime too.

Hopefully our resident Cookeville writer will come on this thread and tell you about Cookeville. Cookeville was nice, just not exactly what my kiddos wanted--lake with a dock in the backyard and smaller community. (We live in a very small community now.) The schools there are better and more to do, etc. as it is a bigger community.

Hope this helps!

[JMT]

A couple of notes: Crossville has a Sears Hometown Store, not a Sears Department Store, meaning it's a very small, very scaled-down version of a "normal" Sears store compared to the Sears department store in Cookeville. Otherwise, Crossville's retail selection is not bad for a small town: Walmart, KMart, and a scaled-down Sears. Cookeville has the aforementioned Sears department store, two Walmarts, Sam's Club, JCPenney, Kohl's, Belk, TJ Maxx, and a host of other stores that Crossville doesn't have. Another note: Crossville's population is just over 11,000, not 3500.

Crossville is blessed to have a fairly large hospital for a town its size. Note, however, that Cumberland Medical Center is now run by Knoxville-based Covenant Health, and many in Crossville are not happy that this means that more critical care patients will be sent by ambulance an hour away to Knoxville instead of 30 minutes away to Cookeville.

County OKs resolution for CMC/Covenant refinance deal - News - Crossville Chronicle

Cookeville's hospital is more than twice the size of Crossville's hospital and is ranked much higher by Healthgrades. According to Healthgrades, Cookeville Regional Medical Center has 5-star ratings in 15 areas while Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville has just one 5-star rating. This year, Cookeville Regional has been named by Healthgrades as one of the top 5 percent of hospitals in the country for Cardiac Care, Coronary Intervention, and Orthopedic Surgery. It also received Excellence Awards for Pulmonary Care, Cardiac Surgery, Spine Surgery, and Joint Replacement. Cumberland Medical Center did receive two Excellence Awards (two years ago) for Gastrointestinal Surgery and General Surgery.

According to US News and World Report's Health page, Cumberland Medical Center has 118 beds and 5 adult specialties: Gastroenterology, Geriatrics, Nephrology, Pulmonology, and Urology. Cookeville Regional Medical Center has 267 beds and 12 adult specialties: Cancer, Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Ear-Nose-Throat, Gastroenterology, Geriatrics, Gynecology, Nephrology, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology, and Urology.

Also according to US News, 58 percent of Cumberland Medical Center's patients would recommend CMC to their friends and 9 percent would not. For Cookeville Regional Medical Center, 76 percent would recommend CRMC to their friends, and 4 percent would not. (The national average is 71 percent who would recommend their local hospitals, 5 percent would not.)

Cookeville also has the area's only V.A. clinic.

For restaurants, there's a reason you'll see a lot of Cumberland County cars in Cookeville parking lots. Among the national restaurants you'll find in Cookeville but not Crossville: Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Applebee's, Outback, Chili's, Longhorn Steakhouse, O'Charley's, Cheddar's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Rib City, Logan's Roadhouse, even Chick-fil-a, IHOP, and Steak & Shake.

In addition, having a mid-major university in town is a huge plus for Cookeville, in my opinion, as it offers things such as art galleries, concerts, recitals, NCAA sports, lecture series, a huge research library, etc., that most towns Cookeville's size don't have. How cool is it to be able to take classes just for fun? Learning a foreign language, studying literature, practicing creative writing, discovering how to make stained glass, all just for fun. Or be part of the symphony guild, help out at the children's library, volunteer at the children's museum--all things you can do in Cookeville but not in Crossville.

I can understand why many retirees are dazzled by the retirement villages in the Crossville area, particularly Fairfield Glade with its beautiful golf courses and members-only restaurants. Cookeville is also a very popular retirement area which is also easy to see why.

[lae60]

Thanks JMT for adding that comparison information. I hoped you would. And I messed up the Crossville population with that of Lake Tansi, which I think is around 3500 (according to the realtor...).

Oh, PatJeff, please ask about POA/HOA fees if you look at Fairfield Glade--they are quite high and get higher each year. I am not sure of $ are a concern to you, but in looking at the area as a whole a lot of folks did not seem happy with the high cost there, but others loved all the added things they have for that community. And that cost benefit balance will be different for everyone.

[Sparkman]

I own a rental condo in FFG and the assessments to FFG are $83/mo. There are different tiers, if you own a house , they are a little higher. I also have a condo assn. which have it's own separate assessment to maintain our complex.