[kk68]

Very nice property. Congrats dataway!

[1965gp]

Love it- congratulations!

[dataway]

For those in the West TN area ... I'm about ten miles or so north east of Milan.

Yes the house was of little value. However it does save us considerable expense arranging a place to live while having a new home built. Our other options would have been renting a nearby home with room enough for vehicles and farm equipment, buying an RV to live in an arranging for water and septic etc. So ... the house, poor as it is, saves us a considerable amount, more importantly speeds the process up.

When it comes to the shop building, I don't want to say money is not a consideration, but it's less of a consideration than the convenience of a turn key shop. Basically all I want to do is the electric, possibly insulation, possibly the wood I want on the lower half of the walls. It will probably get built before we even move down there as we will need a place for equipment immediately upon moving. The reason a place like Morton is attractive to us is that they can arrange the whole shebang and get the job done in a timely manner, perhaps if scheduling works out we can be down there for the whole process.

Although, if I can find a reliable, highly regarded local erector in the West TN area that would certainly be an option. It will probably be a bit more than a functional building as far as the exterior appearance. It will need to complement the house. I'm looking for a full foundation type building, no poles in the ground, poles are fine, but I want them tied to the foundation, so I'll be looking at footings, and slab. Steel frame is also still and option, but it would have to be commercial level construction. Tornadoes are not an uncommon sight in that area of TN.

Thanks for the congrats and the advice, I'm sure I'll need more information from you guys in the near future.

[dataway]

By the way ... the name of the place will be "Sweetgum Ranch"

Here is the name sake, a giant sweetgum tree on the property which will be about 150' behind the house. The wife says she'll take care of the gumballs. She's already wearing her college riding boots in anticipation of having a horse ... which she will also have to take care of

Back of the house will face the tree, vineyard will be in the distance behind the tree.

[b-man]

Living the dream.

Good luck with your future digs!

Bart

[dataway]

Originally Posted by scott70

Looks like peace and quiet to me,,,,perfect! Whats does 30 acres go for in that area? Sounds like the house basically has little value. I keep telling my wife Id like to have 30-40 acres someplace quiet.

I feel like we got lucky with this one, we called and put a deposit on it the day after it was listed. This piece ran about $8k an acre including the old farm house (which is livable and was occupied until a few months ago). The hard part is finding land that is reasonably flat, but not too flat, nice square lot with plenty of road frontage, no creeks bisecting, no utility right of ways, all parts of the property accessible, no flooding, mix of pasture and woods, no dump/factory/highway/junkyard/trailerpark etc. next door, reasonable distance from services, decent roads etc.

This piece ticked all those boxes (and has fiber internet to the house). Prices are all over the place right now. I've seen this much land selling for less, and selling for close to twice as much.

The key in TN right now is being ready to write a check. If we had waited even one week this piece would have been sold. We watched it happen to a dozen other pieces we wanted. Tons of people looking to escape less desirable areas of the country and the tax situation in TN is very attractive.

We saw this piece online, inquired about it, made a deposit and we had already planned a trip down so three days later we looked at the land, told the agent we would pay the asking price, a done deal about three weeks later. This is our forever home, so risking losing it during a negotiation was not an option, we have looked at literally thousands of pieces of land and this was 95% of everything we could have dreamed of ... only thing better would be if it was in east TN ... but this much flat land in east TN costs a fortune.

[scott70]

Thats one reason Id want some acreage is for my own shooting range on my property where I can shoot a few rounds now and then with no complaining. If I moved to a different state I also would be very picky on which state and county it would be. And then the land,terrain,businesses ,weather all would take into consideration.

[Half-Inch Stud]

Post 20 glad you hit Like.. We want to visit the factory too, so if you plan a visit (showroom during the M-T-W-Th till 5pm). their phone is 205-269-3492.

3 campgrounds in our area bought ACC cabins, and we stayed in 1 and were quite impressed with the ruggedness, built materials, layout, propane heat etc.

They are classed a Park Trailer which is classed a Mobile Home, which depreciates in TAX Assessment compared to a traditional home. We pay $290 Property TAX for 5 fenced acres the 16'x 70' Single Wide, Barn, Garage. Neighbor pays $2,000 for 5 acres unfenced, Trad build home with same sq-ft, no garage, no other structures.

See if your County drops the property tax when one of younz turn 65. We look forward to some improvements. The South taxes even minor property improvements whereas PA, NY don't really put improvements under such a microscope. Maintenance is different.

Seems the mobile home are more resilient to tornado wind, (and heavy rains) despite what you hear and see on the news. Half or most homes "outside the city" are Mobile with metal roofs. Shingle roofs would get torn up by the winds. Anyway Home Insurance is not fair with Trad built home coverage compared to Northern Home Insurance. Many clauses are added about what severe damage is not covered.

Our home sits like a bar magnet aligned South to North for best results in all weather. Front porch faces East, Back Porch faces West. Very nice that way.

[Tom Vaught]

Originally Posted by dataway

I feel like we got lucky with this one, we called and put a deposit on it the day after it was listed. This piece ran about $8k an acre including the old farm house (which is livable and was occupied until a few months ago). The hard part is finding land that is reasonably flat, but not too flat, nice square lot with plenty of road frontage, no creeks bisecting, no utility right of ways, all parts of the property accessible, no flooding, mix of pasture and woods, no dump/factory/highway/junkyard/trailerpark etc. next door, reasonable distance from services, decent roads etc.

This piece ticked all those boxes (and has fiber internet to the house). Prices are all over the place right now. I've seen this much land selling for less, and selling for close to twice as much.

The key in TN right now is being ready to write a check. If we had waited even one week this piece would have been sold. We watched it happen to a dozen other pieces we wanted. Tons of people looking to escape less desirable areas of the country and the tax situation in TN is very attractive.

We saw this piece online, inquired about it, made a deposit and we had already planned a trip down so three days later we looked at the land, told the agent we would pay the asking price, a done deal about three weeks later. This is our forever home, so risking losing it during a negotiation was not an option, we have looked at literally thousands of pieces of land and this was 95% of everything we could have dreamed of ... only thing better would be if it was in east TN ... but this much flat land in east TN costs a fortune.

From what I read I would be very happy with a similar place and was looking at a Quality Barn on the property.

Congratulations

Tom V.

[72projectbird]

Congrats on getting out of NY! I'm looking at eastern Tennessee as a potential relocation spot.

[dataway]

HIS, we spent quite a while looking at Golden Eagle log homes. Kind of the same deal as Morton .. you visit their office and finalize a design and they kind of take care of the whole thing, serving as general contractor. The wife wants room for visiting relatives, so in either the main house, or a guest house will have to accommodate them. She is kind of running the house show ... I'm only in control of the shop Personally I'd live in the shop and be happy.

Tax on the property is about $400 a year. We pay ten times that in NY right now. TN has the "Greenbelt" program, long as we keep some of the land in cultivation and promise not to build a housing development it knocks about 35% off the tax bill.

I'm considering starting a YouTube channel documenting the move, from the preparations in NY, to the finished product in TN. I've already started filming things like rebuilding my 2011 GMC to make the long trips down. Will be called "From Hell to Heaven"

[scott70]

Originally Posted by dataway

HIS, we spent quite a while looking at Golden Eagle log homes. Kind of the same deal as Morton .. you visit their office and finalize a design and they kind of take care of the whole thing, serving as general contractor. The wife wants room for visiting relatives, so in either the main house, or a guest house will have to accommodate them. She is kind of running the house show ... I'm only in control of the shop Personally I'd live in the shop and be happy.

Tax on the property is about $400 a year. We pay ten times that in NY right now. TN has the "Greenbelt" program, long as we keep some of the land in cultivation and promise not to build a housing development it knocks about 35% off the tax bill.

I'm considering starting a YouTube channel documenting the move, from the preparations in NY, to the finished product in TN. I've already started filming things like rebuilding my 2011 GMC to make the long trips down. Will be called "From Hell to Heaven"

400.00 a year? I would love that. We pay like 3800 on one property and right around that on another property. Id wonder how much yours will go up with new house and a big garage.

[Formulabruce]

Grats on your " Escape" !!!! great location, be sure you have drainage though, rain comes in huge amounts sometimes.. !

[dataway]

Originally Posted by scott70

400.00 a year? I would love that. We pay like 3800 on one property and right around that on another property. Id wonder how much yours will go up with new house and a big garage.

I'm expecting it to at least double. Still a long way from the $4200 we pay now, which of course goes up every single year.

Formula, yes we have one area we will need to address if we don't keep a good ground cover growing at all times. I can see on google earth historic images that there can be an erosion issue when the field is just bare dirt. Can't wait to get the backhoe down there and get to work. I grew up about 100 miles from the new place and remember downpours.

[importsmasher]

Congratulations! I live just west of Selmer, about an hour and a half from Milan. We moved from Utah, not New York, so not as much difference in taxes, but it is cheaper. We found 65 acres with a log house and a 30x70 metal shop. The house was a major fixer upper, but the bones are solid. Its nice because the house and shop are a half mile off the road, so we cant see or hear our neighbors. We qualify for the greenbelt, and our taxes are 1100 per year. We had a small mobile home put in for my mother in law as well. Someday my wife would love to tear the house down and design a new house herself. And she would agree with you that the only thing to make it better would be if it were in east Tennessee lol. We love it here, and plan to stay. Maybe I'll see you at a car show somewhere.

Importsmasher

[Half-Inch Stud]

@ Importsmasher , yea since you gots the metal shop and MinLaw mobile home, you'd do well to buy the log-built style home that ACC makes.

[dataway]

Importsmasher ... yes, hopefully I will make some contact with some local Pontiac people. I'm not the only one going back home, so is my GTO .. right now in my file cabinet is the last set of plates I got for the GTO, brand new TENN plates never installed, that was back in the 80's ... maybe they will let me use them when I register the car down there.

So far the car has never been registered in NY in the 40+ years I've lived here ( I was in the military when I went to NY).

What prompted you to leave Utah? Sounds like you found a perfect place in TN.

[Cliff R]

I did pretty much the same thing back in 2003 when I retired the first time. We located a piece of property, built a 32 x 56 shop on it, moved into an apartment nearby, then started on the house. I was the main contractor and hired a builder to coordinate most of it. I worked with him every day. Started the house in May and in by Thanksgiving. I did all the mechanicals and most of the finish work. Since moving in I've purchased every property that touches mine that came up for sale so now we own 3 additional parcels and almost 15 acres. So plenty of elbow room.

We moved here because this is where I grew up and taxes were a LOT less than other places we've lived. We spent quite a few years in Virginia, which is a Commonwealth and personal property taxes were rediculous. PA wasn't much better and we never planned on staying there but it was my last duty assignment before retiring.

Looks like you did it right and will soon reap the benefits of waiting to find the right piece of property. The only advice I can give is that buildings are never big enough. I added on to mine a few years ago and plan on building another one next year. The second building will be for equipment and tool storage. It's amazing how much you accumulate in 20 years and currenty in the process of cleaning up and downsizing some.

Anyhow, congrats and good luck with your new adventure!......

[dataway]

Yep Cliff, sounds like we have/had very similar plans. I would absolutely love to start a house in spring and be in by Nov. I keep reminding my wife we aren't getting any younger and I don't want to spend two years screwing around with building anything too "unusual" or so "custom" we'll be waiting six months to get something delivered. Just want brick exterior, hip roof, full basement and when a choice has to be made .. opt for function over form.
I also keep reminding her the place as to be as durable and trouble free as possible because when we hit 80 years old we aren't going to be in a position to do much work ourselves, and will be at the mercy of contractors.

I'm going to feel the need to be there every day when they are building. I'll set up a camera and let them know I'll be posting the build on YouTube I'm sure I'll be going through the place everyday after 5pm and adding a nail here, a screw there, making notes.

I'm going to try my hardest not to accumulate much, I've done well with that on the current 16 acres, in fact I probably give away too much and end up buying things over again. If I go first I don't want to leave her with a mess.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by dataway

I also keep reminding her the place as to be as durable and trouble free as possible because when we hit 80 years old we aren't going to be in a position to do much work ourselves, and will be at the mercy of contractors.

It's a good idea to plan ahead for age-proofing the house...single floor living (washer and dryer on main floor, etc.), grab bars by the toilet and in the bathtub, doors wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair, and so on.