What If One of You Wants the Lake and One Wants the City?

Here is the most common stalled purchase. One of you visits and falls for the place. The other nods politely and asks how far it is to a hospital.

Both reactions are reasonable. Neither of you is wrong. But if you do not deal with the gap, the decision dies quietly, usually after six months of "let's think about it."

This guide is for two people in that spot. It covers what each side is usually worried about, and how to test both at Tennessee National, the private, gated community on Watts Bar Lake in Loudon, Tennessee.

What is the disagreement really about?

Usually a specific fear, not the lake or the city. "I don't want to live in the country" almost never means what it says. Ask each other three questions.

• What are you afraid of losing? Often it is restaurants, doctors, an airport, friends or a sense that things are happening.
• What are you afraid of getting stuck with? Often it is isolation, upkeep or a hobby only one of you enjoys.
• What would make yes easy? Get specifics. "Something to do" is not an answer. "A Saturday dinner in town without a long drive home" is.

Write the answers down separately, then compare. The gap is usually smaller than it felt.

How far is the city from Tennessee National?

Knoxville is about 30 minutes away, and I-75 is about 10 minutes from the gate.

So the lake person gets water in the morning. The city person gets a real city within a normal drive. How far is Tennessee National from Knoxville? has more on the route.

What is there to do if only one of you golfs or boats?

Plenty, and most of it has nothing to do with a club or a boat. The fear under "too far from the city" is often "what will I do all day?"

Inside the gates:

• For the golfer. A Greg Norman Signature course. 18 holes, 7,393 yards, par 72.
• For the boater. A full-service marina with 140+ boat slips on Watts Bar Lake. See marina and lake life.
• For both of you. 22 social clubs and 180+ events a year. Trivia, live music, wine tastings and holiday parties are examples. There is also a pool, a fitness center, pickleball, tennis, walking trails and Kendall's restaurant in the clubhouse.

See social life for more. The honest question to ask on a visit is not "is there enough?" It is "would I go?"

Are there middle-ground ways to try it?

Yes. You do not have to decide everything at once.

• Buy the land and wait on the house. There is no deadline to build after you buy a homesite. One of you gets the plan started. The other gets time to see how it feels.
• Choose less house. Townhomes and finished homes are among the ways to own. Less upkeep can answer the "stuck with it" fear. Finished homes are on the properties page.
• Start part time. Use the place for weekends and seasons before you decide about living there all year.
• Spend a week nearby first. Stay in the area and live an ordinary week. Run the errands. Drive to dinner. See what you miss.

How should you visit when you disagree?

Visit as a test, not as a sales event.

1. Split the day. The lake person picks the morning: the marina, the shoreline, the course. The city person picks the afternoon: the drive to Farragut and Knoxville, at the hour you would really go.
2. Name one deal-breaker each. Only one. It keeps the list honest.
3. Talk to residents. Ask people with different interests how they make it work.
4. Stay overnight nearby. Farragut, about 20 minutes away, has hotels. Wake up in the area before you decide.
5. Sleep on it. No decisions in the parking lot.

What about the money?

Put it on the table early, because money disagreements hide inside location disagreements.

Pricing is in the info pack. Add the costs that repeat: dues, property taxes, insurance, and any club or marina costs you would choose. Tennessee has no state income tax, and a CPA can tell you what that means for your household. Agree on the whole number before you argue about the view.

The honest trade-off

Tennessee National is not downtown. You will drive for a concert, a specialist or a flight. If one of you needs to walk to dinner every night, a lake community is the wrong fit, and it is better to find that out now than after closing.

If half an hour to the city sounds fine to both of you, the rest is detail. You do not have to agree before you visit. You only have to agree to look together, and to let the drive and the day settle what the argument could not.

Facts about Tennessee National come from the community. Lake facts come from TVA. Rules, taxes, loans and insurance change, so confirm anything that affects a purchase with the right office or professional before you buy.