New to searching for land for STRs - Looking for general advice

[Laura Casner]

I'm looking for 3-5 acres to do 3-5 tiny houses (built into foundations) in the greater Knoxville area for STRs. Any advice on what to look for in land??? Any recommendations outside of MLS to search for land? Anyone build these types of units before and have any advice?

[Ian Porter]

Hey @Laura Casner I am in the process of building an 800 sq ft A frame from DEN Outdoors on 1.8 acres near Ellijay. Some really great points have been brought up already and one I would emphasize is site utilities. On these sloping lots you need to be hyper aware of where you can place your septic tank and drain field. For example in the county I am building in you need to have your drain field at least 100' away from your well and there is a maximum amount of slope the drain field can sit on. It also has a distance it has to be from flowing waters like a creek. Additionally keep in mind a well drilling truck is about as heavy as a fully loaded concrete truck and as long as a school bus so access for your well location will drive your feasibility as well. As previously mentioned here getting power to the site can be tricky. You can pretty easily see where the closest power is whether it's a power line or under ground utilities with a transformer. Keep in mind power will only run so far without adding an additional transformer due to voltage drop. This would really only apply if you were building on a 10-20 acre site and your properties were pretty far from the main lines. Happy to answer any more questions as I know building small structures in remote locations can be daunting.