My return to Tennessee after 37 years.

I’ve pretty much completed my move to Tennessee. I’m not all that far from Huntsville, but I’ll be sporting Tennessee tags on my truck soon and my mug is already decorating a Tennessee State driver’s license (which in getting also made me a registered voter).

Sold my house in an unbelievable two days. At least that was as long as it was publicized. Emily treated me to a week in Gatlinburg during my birthday week. The week before I interviewed three Realtors. Two where recommended by my out of state bank, USAA. They have a program for helping sellers. However, as I inquired, I realized that they just get a commission for every bank customer that takes up one of their recommended Realtors and they really haven’t done any checking on the Realtor’s capabilities. Of course I could have gotten cash at closing for using one of them, but the amount of money wasn’t really an incentive after I got past the initial marketing effort.

I also called on Dave Ramsey. For you who don’t know about him, he is a “Christian” financial adviser with a radio show. Yea I know what you are thinking. Chet!!!! Have you found religion!!!! No, I haven’t. But, Ramsey gives out excellent financial advice for those who will not face the reality of debt. I use to go out for lunch buying a sack meal and finding a tree shaded area off the road there on Redstone. His station was the only one what would come in static free. He was followed by Rush Limbaugh, so I made sure my lunch was finished by the end of Ramsey’s show. His religiosity isn’t a big part of his show although he does try to insure his ticket to heaven is good with a few scripture readings and a smattering of JC is Lord. But 90% of the show is excellent hard hitting financial advice. Call him the Dr. Phil of Finance. I’m not a fan of Dr. Phil. I see a big difference in rough, honest, straightforward financial advice and deeply emotional beatings.

One of the side issues Ramsey makes money from is advertising from companies that he claims he has researched and interviewed and tested. So, I left an email on his site saying I was looking for a Realtor in my area. Both his and USAA’s recommended realtor’s called within 24 hours. They all had great presentations and handled my questions pretty well. But one had one thing the others didn’t. Yea, she was cute and full of energy and she had a great personality and most definitely knew the company line since she leads it here. But in addition to all the others offered, she also offered free use of a truck to move with. Just fill up the tank and bring it back when you’re done. Not only that, but once I use her services, the use of the truck is a life long offer. Yep, if in a few months I want to haul a big group of illegal aliens to Chicago, I can call her up and reserve the truck. Now how is that for an incentive? Well, maybe for some of you, hauling your own stuff is the last thing you want to do in such a transition, but I’ve done it all my life so this was a real cost savings.

Who is this master of the Realtor business? Amanda Howard, Ring the Team, of Weichert Realtors.

So, having chosen Howard to handle the sale of my house, Emily and I took off for Gatlinburg. Howard’s team came out to the house and took pictures for a visual-tour. If you want to see how well they did, click here. Yea I cleaned the place up. They got the sale posted to the web on Wednesday and on the drive back from Gatlinburg that Friday I got a call that I had four offers and one was in excess of my asking price. Wow, I never thought it would go that fast. When I bought it four years earlier it has been on the market for months. Needless to say I was pleased - more money than I asked and no repairs or home improvements necessary. Two weeks latter I moved out and closed.

Now, living in Fayetteville, TN isn’t like living in the big city. It is a lot like my Dad’s home town, Noblesville, IN, use to be. (I say “use to be” because Noblesville has been consumed by the urban sprawl of Indianapolis.) There is a town square filled by the county courthouse. Fayetteville is the county seat of Lincoln County which is not named after Abraham Lincoln. Fayetteville is named after the city of Fayetteville, NC – a place I use to live as well. Seems some North Carolinians from Fayetteville came west and settled in Tennessee. But you can read all that if you are interested on Wikipedia.

It took a week for me to settle in here and get myself back on the Internet in the privacy of my own place, although, it isn’t my place, its Emily’s. The 29 mile commute is a pain but coming home to a significant other is worth it. I have changed my morning habits to miss the bulk of the traffic going to Huntsville. Seems a lot of Tennesseans commute to either Huntsville or Redstone Arsenal to work. No longer do I while away the morning hours doing whatever my over active mind desires then rush to work in 10 minutes. I miss that. But life in a small town is suiting me at this stage of my life. I’m still looking for a few acres to build my final house on and this area has just the kind of picturesque landscape I’m interested in. Click these links for a few snap shots I’ve taken driving around the county.

Stable on a Foggy Morning

Barn-in-the-Mist

Deer-in-Meadow

Home-on-Lynchburg-Hwy

Stone-House-in-the-Meadow

I am scouting out best places and times to photograph this area. Even got me a new GPS to help me get back to some of these really back woods locations. I’m looking forward to recording Lincoln County for these times. Landscape photography isn’t my biggest photographic interest but I’ll strive to do the county justice.

Expect more to come now that my transition back to a Tennessean is nearly complete.