Work in Gatlinburg - live where? (Knoxville, Sevierville: real estate, apartments, rental homes)

[Off2TN]

cw30000,
I usually first check out the greatschools.net website for some scores. From there I will narrow down to which areas I would like to be in. But my final decision comes from the community. Talk to people in the community and parents who have kids at these schools and see what they think. They will give you honest opinions and let you know about other factors such as the administration, students, parental involvement, if there's any problems, etc. And fortunately, with easy access online and with social marketing it's pretty easy to find these people even if you are not in the town.

Now, if you move to somewhere like AZ you will also have a dozen or so of (free) charter schools to choose from. These all usually get great reviews and this is where talking to people also come into play. Scores will not tell you if the school is "too strict" or not enough with their discipline. Scores also won't tell you how much parental involvement there is at the school and everyone knows how much this makes a huge difference in a school. I hope that makes sense. Good luck searching and if I can help you in any way just let me know. It's hard and scary moving and looking for a new school!

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by cw30000

Maybe this is off topic.

As someone who wanted to relocate, how do you research school if score is not the primary criteria?

Thanks

I'm not giving advice based on any scores. That was an assumption made by the poster. I'm giving advice as as someone well-versed in educational systems in various regions and living in the area for the past eight years. I never look at scores or ratings. A lot of that depends on socio-economic backgrounds. If the school is full of students near or below the poverty level, the scores could reflect that. Ultimately, the best determination is the advice of local parents.

*******

When I was an agent, I would not show homes to people for "fun." You were either pre-qualified or you could find another agent. I was not going to waste my time or the sellers. Bringing people into someones home is serious business. They have to uproot their family, change their schedules and clean. And the saddest part is getting the seller's hopes up for NOTHING.

If you want to see the sights, go to Disney.

Further, I just have to say this. I was asked a lot of questions the other day by direct message. Personally, I think that commuting from Waynesville, NC to Knoxville everyday is ludicrous. I was kind of ridiculed for my answer. I don't care what your commute entails now. This is the darn mountains we are talking about. There are rock slides, mud slides and snow. Last time the roads were shut down it took MONTHS and MONTHS for them to be opened! Are you kidding me?

The answer I got was that they like wide, open spaces so they are willing to commute. So you have to go that far? Fifteen minutes out of downtown Knoxville is rural!

But now I see that the real objective is a $30,000 house and they won't be moving for several years. Well, good luck with that.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by Off2TN

cw30000,
I usually first check out the greatschools.net website for some scores. From there I will narrow down to which areas I would like to be in. But my final decision comes from the community. Talk to people in the community and parents who have kids at these schools and see what they think. They will give you honest opinions and let you know about other factors such as the administration, students, parental involvement, if there's any problems, etc. And fortunately, with easy access online and with social marketing it's pretty easy to find these people even if you are not in the town.

Now, if you move to somewhere like AZ you will also have a dozen or so of (free) charter schools to choose from. These all usually get great reviews and this is where talking to people also come into play. Scores will not tell you if the school is "too strict" or not enough with their discipline. Scores also won't tell you how much parental involvement there is at the school and everyone knows how much this makes a huge difference in a school. I hope that makes sense. Good luck searching and if I can help you in any way just let me know. It's hard and scary moving and looking for a new school!

I wrote my response before I saw yours.

A couple of things.

First of all, not all charter schools are created equal. Some of them - actually most of the ones I have ever encountered - are miserably failing.

And once again, parental involvement tells the tale, yes. But you also have to make sure that they system is solid. How is it run? What programs are in place? How many students graduate - and for real, not the cooked up stats. How many go onto college? Is AP offered? What is the curriculum? How many teachers have advanced degrees?

[Beretta]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

I'm not giving advice based on any scores. That was an assumption made by the poster. I'm giving advice as as someone well-versed in educational systems in various regions and living in the area for the past eight years. I never look at scores or ratings. A lot of that depends on socio-economic backgrounds. If the school is full of students near or below the poverty level, the scores could reflect that. Ultimately, the best determination is the advice of local parents.

*******

When I was an agent, I would not show homes to people for "fun." You were either pre-qualified or you could find another agent. I was not going to waste my time or the sellers. Bringing people into someones home is serious business. They have to uproot their family, change their schedules and clean. And the saddest part is getting the seller's hopes up for NOTHING.

If you want to see the sights, go to Disney.

Further, I just have to say this. I was asked a lot of questions the other day by direct message. Personally, I think that commuting from Waynesville, NC to Knoxville everyday is ludicrous. I was kind of ridiculed for my answer. I don't care what your commute entails now. This is the darn mountains we are talking about. There are rock slides, mud slides and snow. Last time the roads were shut down it took MONTHS and MONTHS for them to be opened! Are you kidding me?

The answer I got was that they like wide, open spaces so they are willing to commute. So you have to go that far? Fifteen minutes out of downtown Knoxville is rural!

But now I see that the real objective is a $30,000 house and they won't be moving for several years. Well, good luck with that.

I took it that they are looking to pay cash except for maybe a balance for the remainder of the purchase of $30K. Not that they are looking to purchase a home that costs $30K.

[Beretta]

Please continue any further generic school search discussions in our Education forum.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by Beretta

I took it that they are looking to pay cash except for maybe a balance for the remainder of the purchase of $30K. Not that they are looking to purchase a home that costs $30K.

Well, could be but that is the only explanation I can come up with for driving 200 miles, over mountains, at least five days a week!

[klunick]

Originally Posted by Beretta

Perhaps the home owners in GA knew that you weren't serious buyers. As someone who has sold my fair share of homes nothing burnt me up more than finding out that my hours of house prep was for people looking "just for fun" or for nosiness. Anyway, that is off topic for this forum so let's get back on topic.

The only advice I have about those three areas to you at this point is to consider not only the house "bang for the buck" but all of the costs of living in a particular area.

My in-laws were the ones looking to buy the house, not us so we were along for the ride. Living in the Washington DC area like we do, we are subjected to a very high cost of living so anything away from this area, short of certain states, will have a much lower COL than what we endure now.

[creeksitter]

I was talking to a lady the other day who lives in Gatlinburg, and she was complaining about how she drove a friend to work in Pigeon Forge last summer, which was no more than 5 miles away from Gatlinburg, and it took 4 hours to get there!

People who want to relocate to Gburg or PF need to read this over and over again. This is not a one time scenario due to a bad wreck but something you might encounter a dozen times throughout the year. It is ironic that someone who works in the NE side of Gburg might actually get there quicker from Waynesville than they would from Pigeon Forge or Sevierville on those days.

Not that I recommend commuting from Waynseville on a regular basis either.

[klunick]

Originally Posted by Beretta

I took it that they are looking to pay cash except for maybe a balance for the remainder of the purchase of $30K. Not that they are looking to purchase a home that costs $30K.

You are correct. We will use what we get on our house as a payment for the new house. We expect to clear at least $250,000. If we chose a higher priced house, we'd like to keep it within $280,000.

Hiknapster... I'm sorry you took any comments the wrong way. I didn't mean to sound ungrateful for your advice. You have given me great in-sight about things but I will not PM you any more and you can chose to ignore my posts if you want. Again, sorry for any misunderstanding.

[NJDevil]

My advice is to write down what you want in a home (the absolute musts). Haven't we all fallen in love with a house and forgotten some of the key things we wanted? If you don't mind fixing it up, that's great. But I'm referring to the false advertising. We wanted a house with a view of the mountains and the majority of houses that CLAIM to have this did not. Or, they built the house with no windows facing the view. So if that's something you really want, you can find it, just be patient. If a view of the mountains will make you happier than lots of closet space, go for the happy.