A Florida Story (Chattanooga, Franklin, Brentwood: insurance, vacation home, gated community)

[Jhubtin]

I just have to tell our story. We are from South Florida, born and raised. As much as I love home I have to admit I also can't stand to be here most times. Traffic, attitudes, stress, non-speaken english folks, yada yada yada. Did I mention traffic? Any way.. last Summer we took off to TN to find the land we would retire on. We found 43acres on top of a mountain in Overton County. We really jumped the gun seeing we are about 25 years to retirement but we went ahead and built a cabin on the property. Oh well, now we have a vacation home. Stunning views, peaceful and private. Anyway just wanted to let people know about this charming County. It is near Monterey between Crossville and Cookville. Although we seem to be out in the middle of no where it is only about 25 min from any major shopping you could possibly need. Did I mention the traffic in S. FL.? It takes that long to get anywhere now.
If this will work here is a picture of our Winter view.

[Gate]

You have a beautiful place,thanks for sharing

[Jhubtin]

Thanks for the compliment. I had no idea you could post pictures here. It would be a lot more helpful for some if people could see pictures of the areas they are requesting info on.
On that note...I have tons more pics of our property if anyone would like to see more of this area.

[Bones]

Hi Jhubtin, I will be looking at this in 5 weeks outside of Crossville. Did I mention traffic? LOL

[Happy Trails]

In the early nineties i did the same thing. Bought 50 acres for 40k!!!! A mountain south of Monteagle..excavated a six acre lake and has a driveway 3/4 of a mile into the forest. We built a nice cabin with a big fireplace and no other formal heat or AC...just a blower and fans. I loved the solitude and
the beauty. Then, like A ROYAL IDIOT, I sold the property for what I had in it.. after all it was "remote" then and people weren't as adventurous as they acted. I was traveling through Central America and loving Costa Rica is the 80s and neve rsaw any Americans except surfers (Kids)..now Costa Rica is becoming all of most Californians want to leave that state becuase of. Anyway..i sold it and it is absolutely the worst mistake I have ever made.

My wife and I decided to make up for that. We didn't wait for retirement to move here. We are FROM here and left when we were young only to find that
the grass that was greener has now turned to concrete and sprawl.

We bought a fantastic storybook home in 3 wooded acres on Signal Mountain, out in the sticks but 15 miles from Downtown Chattanooga.
In Florida we were in a 3500 sqft home in a gated community full of rules
and trump wannabes mortgaged up to their -SS but projecting the success in the mirror of their Lexus'....our house consummed the lot which was cosidered a premium "conservation" lot becuase it backed up to a park. We paid 80k for the lot! Now I look in the mirror and can say.."I once was THAT stupid!" Am I happy to live in a beautiful place and have neighbors who COULD BE millionaires but wear overalls and invite me over for lemonade
(the hard kind.) No pretention. All I can say is -- get out ahead of the Hurricanes and global warming. The plastic coating of what once was a great natural state (Florida) has been inundated by greed and stupid people from everywhere seeking to quicly become a florida native while they call Fish and Game and want all the wildlife in their yard killed.

Don't wait too long to enjoy all of this. Just LOOKING at it isn't enough. You will want to boat, float, hike, crawl, climb and swim it all too. COME ON UP!

Another Floridian escaped! Come on up!

[Shirlz]

Oh please stop teasing. We want out so bad (Bonita Springs) but can not sell our home. Insurance is probably one of the biggest problems right now. We are coming to TN the 22nd for a week to look around the South West area (Savannah etc) is this a good thing or should we look elsewhere. Still have to work a couple of years. Thanks for your input. Now we really want to escape.

[mhogan10010]

Originally Posted by Happy Trails

The plastic coating of what once was a great natural state (Florida) has been inundated by greed and stupid people from everywhere seeking to quickly become a Florida [b]native

I certainly don't blame you for wanting to get out of Florida. I have relatives who left Western NC 25 or 30 years ago and moved to the Clearwater area. They just don't make enough money for me to live there.
Now to the quote. What you said has happened to Florida is slowly happening to North Carolina and next to Tennessee. You are probably far out enough that it won't touch you, but around the cities.....get ready...all the angry stressed burned out Floridians are coming.
PS-Not to mention he angry stressed and broke New Jerseyites and Long Islanders.

[Blondie]

"...the grass that was greener has now turned to concrete and sprawl."

What a great line! That's exactly how I feel about the sleepy little town where I grew up that was known as Franklin, TN - now known as the sprawling suburb Franklin/Brentwood/Cool Springs.

[kar]

We escaped from Fort Myers, Florida last June and moved up to the small town of Fairview in Williamson County right next to Nashville. The only thing we should of done differently was to have made the decision to move earlier. We love it here.

[Jhubtin]

Originally Posted by Shirlz

Oh please stop teasing. We want out so bad (Bonita Springs) but can not sell our home. Insurance is probably one of the biggest problems right now. We are coming to TN the 22nd for a week to look around the South West area (Savannah etc) is this a good thing or should we look elsewhere. Still have to work a couple of years. Thanks for your input. Now we really want to escape.

How was your trip? Did you find an area you would like to be? We won't be selling here in S. Florida anytime soon but I think your right about the insurance. Just in time for Hurricane Season our insurance company of 11 years dropped us (no claims). We only found one other company to write us a policy. 300% increase!! That is 10x what our homeowners premium is in Tennessee. And that is paying premium on a second home through a different company. AND, on top of that they are trying to add mandatory flood insurance at approximatley another $1200.00 per year.