I live in Metcalfe County-Summer Shade to be exact.
What do you want to know??
We moved to Metcalfe,Co late in 1998 so we've been residents for about 5 1/2 yrs now. We bought one piece of land from Estes-Glenda Harlow was the agent we worked with It went ok, but be very sure you check any info given with the proper authorities instead of just taking any of the agents words as fact. Glenda was pretty up front when she didn't know something but I do know there's a few other agents with Estes that will pretty much tell you what they think you want to hear leaving you with some pretty big surprises once you've bought a property.
The local banks, Edmonton State & South Central both seem quite anxious to help even out of town people finance land or small homesteads.
We have a 40 acre homestead(bought in two parcels-one had the house) but as others have said, there's very little in the way of jobs-at least stable, full time with benefit type jobs. There are a lot of fast food and minimum wage work available. The new Lowe's home center is going to be opening soon and is supposed to be hiring a large number of new employees within the next few weeks/months. If you're looking for work and don't mind a commute of about 50 miles then Bowling Green has quite a good job base but if you want to work in Edmonton or Glasgow the pickings are much slimmer but not totally hopeless.
Just make a list of questions and I'll do my best to answer them.
I can tell you that since I was from Wisconsin this area is much different and takes some getting used to.
I've found it to be hot, humid and there are many more bugs including scorpions & snakes including copperheads and moccasins here in the Summer. Our farm is wooded so that may be why we have so many insects & snakes. Our son killed a 3 1/2' copperhead near the front of his cabin 3 weeks ago-he ended up tanning the skin. We have black & red scorpions-something no one told us about before we moved here.
I have never been bit/stung by one but they do find their way into the house quite often-one of our dogs got stung on the tongue but other than a slight swelling had no other problems...
Coyotes and bobcats are the biggest threats to poultry so secure housing is a necessity. We had a 55 # bobcat on our wrap around front porch-I don't know who was more shocked me or the bobcat! :haha:
Check with your auto insurance agent regarding the cost of auto insurance: the rates in Metcalfe are quite high-we pay as much as we did in California and we're both over 50, homeowners and get the good driver discount. I don't know what the rates would be like for younger people. For us Progressive was the cheapest of 11 different agencies but I'm sure there are others for you to check out that may be better for your age/location/needs.
Property taxes are much lower than the national average.
Food is about average and gas is running $ 1.69 as of today.
Sales tax is 6% except on food. There is a 3% tax on all utilities-gas,water,electric.
Metcalfe doesn't have any zoning except in Edmonton proper. We do have mandatory septic inspection before the electric company will hook in your electric. You don't have to have a septic system if you have over 10 acres but you can't get electric without it.
The schools are fair but I'm only going by what others have said, our son is almost 26!
Metcalfe county along with Barren County, Cumberland County and Monroe county are all dry. If you want a beer/liquor you have to drive to within the Bowling Green city limits or down into TN to purchase.
All I will say is if I had known what I do now; I would probably have chosen TN over this area. That is mostly my own problems with still being called and treated as the 'outsider' and not indicitive of how others who moved here may feel. The area is pretty and the people are fairly friendly once they learn to trust you-but it's a slow process.
Best of Luck
Kathy
Let me know what other questions I can answer.
