The Bettinger’s Alpine Escape - The perfect lot!
- Kristy Bettinger
- Apr 16, 2022
- 8 min read
We have super exciting news to share with ya’ll! If you’ve been following our family adventures you know that..
David and I have always talked about having a second home in the mountains on a lake. BUT imagined it would be after our kids were grown, and likely we would be retired. AND then one day we decided why are we waiting!? Why not now!? Why not while we can enjoy it with our kids. The ideas staring coming together like the perfect plan!
How could we do it now!?🤔... well last year in March our trip to Florida consisted of renting our first Airbnb to stay in.. I had no idea what Airbnb was honestly..and I was leary of staying in one! I had heard of VRBO but never really knew how it worked either. That is when my ideas had started spinning in my mind.. Our first stay was wonderful.. this is perfect for families on vacation. It’s more personalized rather than big company owned. These are awesome.. we love traveling and I love designing.. putting our dreams together. Wishing and dreaming.. that’s all for now.
Throughout the year we would randomly search properties for sale around the Smoky Mountains. The final search began the day we returned home from our New Years getaway in Townsend just a few months ago!!
We thought we had the perfect land!! 10 Acres! Amazing mountain views! Nice cleared walking trails already on property.. flat area for a home, mostly wooded!, creek running through the bottom of the property, 15 miles out of Pigeon Forge.. 20 miles to Gatlinburg, Private land in the mountains.. but yet an easy drive to all the fun! Perfect price for our budget/plans!
We are ready to put our offer in! Ok if you do you can’t back out.. 🤔 Ok if we are really going to do this we just have to see it.. we can’t commit without seeing it.
Saturday January 8th, 2022, 5:00pm we started packing! The boys don’t want to go, we just got home from Tennessee on Sunday! Thankfully, Heidi is home for the night, Hayden and Luke are so excited to spend the night! We head on over to drop them off! 6:30pm we are on the road to Tennessee.. Lynlee, she’s stuck riding with us! Heidi offered to keep her, but she doesn’t even go to sleep at home without me in the room. I can’t leave her screaming.. not yet!
12:30am We made it! Staying in Dandrige, TN tonight!
Sunday morning, a quick hotel breakfast and we are off on a 30 minute drive to get to the property.
It is so pretty here.. mountains and mountains.. sun is shinning!
We pull into the land.. it looks perfect.. a little driveway right up to the perfect spot for our metal home we want to build.. surrounded by trees, and mountain views just like we imagined!!
Someone had already started a foundation.. electric is already on property, a well is needed for water.. that’s ok we’ve already talked to a local company that drills wells to get an idea of cost.
AND THEN.. the neighbors arrive.. I’m not going to go into details because it would be super long.. Have you ever seen the Netflix series Virgin River?? Doc’s wife, Hope.. she reminded me of her so much!
“This land is already sold”
“No, we‘ve been talking to the Realtor, they know we are here to see it. We are putting an offer in today once we check it out.”
“We paved that road and trucks coming in here to build will tear it up, you are responsible to build your own half of the road if you build up here. You’ll need $20,000 or more to pave the road.”
“Renters are pigs! No one in this area rents their homes out. In this development you can’t own a business and that’s a business.”
No that isn’t true.. the development restrictions have expired, there is no restrictions and it is advertised as using it to build rentals..
“There is no internet here.”
Meanwhile our phones have cell service? And we made calls to the realtor from here..
“We just went without power for a week!”
So you get it.. anything and everything to talk us out of buying the land. There was much more conversation that went on.. like 30 minutes of trying to find anything possible to get us out of here.
We walked the land, we just love it. But those people are so rude they are the only reason we are re-thinking. We are now questioning if we can do it, we can’t budget 1/4 mile up a mountain paved road!? 😳 That doesn’t sound right, we think it’s a public road.
We call the Realtor and explain what just happened. She is checking on the road situation. Calls back a few minutes later, the road is public. She can’t do anything about the road or make us make it 10ft wider to own our portion.
And the realtor found out that this lady had the police called on her for trying to tell Realtors they couldn’t be on the land that was sale. The police had came and told her that wasn’t her road and she can’t control people coming in to check out the many many acres for sale passed her home.
We both got the feeling this isn’t right. It seems so perfect, but if we put an airbnb on this property those people will be out there running off everyone!! 😳.. after a few bad reviews due to the neighbors it would be sure to fail.
We were so disappointed yet so glad we made the drive and the neighbors introduced themselves before it was too late!
Sunday around 1:00pm we are now on our way back home.. after a stop at the Old Mill Pottery House for lunch!
Our Realtor pulled up a few other properties in the area we might be interested in. A few sounded and looked amazing! She has been amazing helping us through this process, and you can tell she feels terrible about us driving here and not buying the land. We drove by 2-3 others for sale they were further out than we wanted or didn‘t look like they did in the photos, or what we were imagining. Mainly it didn’t stand out as this is it! Drove up through Cosby and back on the road to home … 😔 I did more searching on the way home with nothing compared to the property we had seen today.
Shortly, I got to thinking .. August 2020 we had stopped by property for sale around Douglas Lake! At that time we were considering l a few private camper lots to rent, but property for that is a rare find. We knew it was a pretty area, close to main roads, not too far out from all the attractions. We had said many times mountains and lake would be perfect. Let’s see what we can find!
Search on Zillow.. and there it is!! Harbor Point lots for sale! Beautiful lake and mountain views! It is only 1.5 acres of land. We were wanting more to have a place for Hayden to make trails to ride his 4 wheeler, hiking trails for guest, and privacy, BUT this is still a great lot and a great area.
City water is already on property, electric is close by, the flatest part of the land has been cleared and ready to build on. Easier to put a driveway in. No HOA or restrictions. Maybe this is a much better lot to keep in budget and be able to get started quick!
Now to make sure the cleared flat area is large enough for our 24’ x 24’ metal home we are planning to build. Thankfully, our realtor knows a project manager. He went out to the property and measured for us! He thinks it will fit nicely, maybe a little corner would need build up, but should be good!
Yes, let‘s get our offer in! .. January 13th first offer in and denied, they will only accept a full price offer. Ok we know we want it. Meanwhile we are waiting on our banks process.
Weeks go by.. bank had said 2-3 week process.. we are now 7 weeks waiting 😒 They were really nice to work with and some things were out of their hands.
It is now February 20 and we made a trip to South Carolina for national ATV race so we decided to make a pit stop on the way home in Sevierville, TN to check out the lots in Harbor Point ourselves. Soon as we pulled up.. yes it is as beautiful as I remember..so much better in person! Pictures really don‘t show the best view here. Ok, we are set we know we want it even if we have to pay full price!
The lake view is not as great here in the winter as it is drained a good bit..these are pics from February.. and pics make the mountains look further away..
and a 360 degree video…
Where is our lot compared to Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg!?
THANKFULLY February 25th we were able to get our offer in on the land! Now lets hope they accept!
Meanwhile.. I drew up my own plans for our metal home. We had searched plans online; I hadn’t found any like I had in mind.. similar but not the same. I used a scale of 1/4 inch = 1 foot to draw my plan.
This was an early sketch, some changes are possible.. Bedroom window should be on lake view side rather than the back of the home, and bed would be on the back wall..So bedroom is all rearranged.. but still a king bed!
Finally, February 27 offer accepted.. it wasn’t full price, but hey every $1,000 counts here! If you know David, not paying full price for anything that you can deal on 😂 The listing did say make offer.. don’t put that in the listing if you won’t take less!? Closing is March 14, 2022!
We closed on March 14, can’t believe this is offically ours and and we are living out this dream!! What’s next!?
We made the decision to ask Mary Jo (our realtor) for Casey’s information so he could be our project manager through this process!
1st step we sent him the plans we had come up with, Pinterest pictures for ideas, pictures of some items we plan to purchase, what we want him to do and what we want to finish ourselves. He likes our plan and ideas!
I drew a sketch to show my idea of the outside…
Moving quickly, we were heading to SC for another National ATV race, and Tennessee isn’t too far out of the way! We met Casey at the property on March 27 so we could discuss more details and can get things going the right direction!
The lake is filling and the view is getting better! Sorry failed on any pictures out second visit.. It was a little chilly!
Unfortunately for the people of Tennessee there was another fire in Wears Valley area that destroyed hundreds of structures. Thankfully, that we know of there were no fatalities due to the fires! Those people are going to need all the help they can get to rebuild their homes, buildings, and businesses. Sending out prayers for all involved in the fires. ❤️
That may effect the process of ours going as quickly as we originally planned, BUT that is ok ..we will get there, we are thankful to be this far!
We’ve now gotten all of our plans and ideas to our project manager with an estimate on the build!! Septic Permit obtained, city water is on property, electric ..moving right along!
We have an idea of a possible finish time, but I’m not going to put any dates/months out there as so many things change with ability to get supplies, people scheduled, and natural disasters that can change things quickly! I am sure that it will NOT be done before summer break 2022 is over.
My inspiration photo from Pinterest for the outside:
Sorry the rest of the details will be revealed as we go!! We can’t spoil all the fun too early!!
Coming in 2022 our very own home in the mountains and we are sharing it with ya’ll!! It will be listed on Airbnb!
The Bettinger’s Alpine Escape in Sevierville, Tennessee!
Beautiful Douglas lake and mountain views!!
Here we are chasing family dreams and making them a reality! ❤️
We stayed at an VRBO on Douglas Lake a few years ago! Beautiful place and close enough to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, yet far enough away.