Relocating to Tennessee

[Jessica H.]

We are considering relocating to Tennessee for personal reasons. Currently we own and run a construction business as well as do flips. What is the job market like in middle to East TN area? We were thinking it might be hard to start our construction business there right away so thought there might be opportunity for a project manager for construction job there in the time being. Has there been a shutdown of construction with all the Covid stuff? Are there opportunities for flipping in the area?

How is the real estate market? We personally would like to buy a mini farm with land in a private area yet be fairly close to stores. Do you have some good suggestions for areas to start searching?

[JD Martin]

I live in East TN (Tri-Cities). Been here for close to 30 years, and I know your area well (daughter is in Bethlehem, father lives in Monroe County, I lived there for few years). I love it but there will be things about it that will frustrate you as a contractor. My experiences:

1. If you need employees, they will suck and you will go through a lot of them. I've lived in 8 different states and the work ethic here is appalling. I believe it is a long, historical cultural issue - people in Appalachia were treated poorly, worked like dogs and discarded when unneeded and learned that it makes no sense to work hard because it gets you nowhere. 

2. If you have even a modicum of professionalism about you, you will outshine 95% of the competition in 5 minutes. That's where shoddy work ethic can help you, because it is easy to rise to the top of your field. You would be amazed at how many "professionals" I have had that never even showed up to do an estimate. I have a good team of people now to do work, but it took me a long time to wade through a lot of junk to get there.

3. If you do good work you will have no trouble finding jobs. People are cheap here, so you will deal with that (everyone thinks everything should cost $1), but those who can afford to pay will not only bring you back, they'll tell everyone they know about you. We rent a lot of our properties these days through word-of-mouth; they never even hit the listings any more. 

4. You will have some bias against you being a Yankee, but that is not anywhere near as how it used to be when I moved here years ago. There's a lot of clannish-ness, but less than there used to be - unless you need a job from someone else, in which case you will find there's still a lot of nepotism. Jobs here were, and have always been, hard to come by, so when decent jobs come open it's not unusual that they're filled by friends or relatives and you never even knew there was an opening. 

5. Things work at a much slower pace here. If waiting bothers you, you will be eternally frustrated here. I have had many contractors sit across my desk and ask me why things take forever here. That's just the nature of the area, and you either accept it or you will have a lot of stress in your life. 

Those are the major things. I don't say that as to discourage you - I love it here and will die here - but you should have clear, rather than rosy, glasses on. People here are as nice as you would find anywhere, and generally like to get along rather than cause a lot of trouble, and as someone that grew up in NJ that's worth it's weight in gold. But with every point comes a counterpoint, and you have to decide if you can bend to the area or if you expect it to bend to you. If the latter, I'd recommend you rethink your strategy.