Please give advice! (Gatlinburg: renters, mobile home, landscaping)

[gardengirl10]

Hello,

My soon to be husband and I are considering a change in scenery. We currently live in Starkville, MS where I attend Mississippi State University. I will be graduating this December and would like to attend graduate school at the University of Tennessee. We have no children yet and have never lived anywhere except for Mississippi so we thought it would exciting and a perfect opportunity to experience living in a new place.

Having only been to Gatlinburg on vacation as a kid, I know nothing about Tennessee. We are currently renting a home and really love the house we're in because the landlord has been so great. We have been allowed to make improvements and updates to the home (paint, new light fixtures, crown molding, landscaping, etc) because we really love to personalize the place we live to make it feel more like home. I love nothing more than to pull up after a long day and see my pretty yard and front porch with ferns hanging and a bassett hound sunbathing on the driveway. The house recently appraised for $15,000 more than the neighboring rental homes! So I feel we are excellent renters and would take very good care of a rental home. Our landlord will be an excellent reference.

What my fiance and I are needing is a 2+ bedroom home that allows pets. We have no children so our animals are very dear to us. We want a house that has some land with it so we can make a nice large fenced in yard for them. Country setting is ideal for us. I would love to make a small garden and have a yard to plant and "beautify". We also would like to be allowed to paint (no crazy colors, we are traditionalists). We can't pay all these extreme pet deposits per pet. Our pets are very well behaved and never have free-range of the house we currently live in. They are outside during the day and inside at night. They sleep in the kitchen with a large pet gate blocking the entrance.

Keeping in mind that we want to attend UT, we are looking for a house in the country (few noisy neighbors as possible) but within 10-20 miles of the school (knoxville or surrounding areas). We would even be happy with a mobile home sitting on a few acres of land! We can pay rent up to $650.

If there is any assistance anyone can provide us we would be extremely grateful!

Thanks so much!