I don't know for sure what you want on the property, but (and I know I sound like a broken record with this)  Black walnut, shagbark hickory,  American mulberry,  and other native nut trees--even pawpaw (though I don't know if that grows where you are) are all excellent things to plant, if they are not already growing on your land.  It takes a long time, but is a gift for you in your later years, and for future generations if you plan on having kids.

I am not as concerned about watering if you grow native species.

Old fashioned apples are not big and fat and red, but they are great for canning and pies, and they survive where a hybrid will not.  Here, peaches and pears are more difficult because they are generally "fussier" plants, and the older native varieties don't produce the kind of fruit we've become accustomed to.

A few native muscadine grape vines might do well for you too (this is always going to be a sweet grape, and not the kind of wine grape you would find in serious wine producing regions) as it is hardy and tough, and by the time you move back in a year, it'll be of a size you might need to begin pruning, but then you're here, right?

Quince is not a fruit many people pay attention to anymore, but it's worthwhile for canning and pies, jellies and jams.  It's also a bush with giant thorns, so it's a survivor.

My advice would be to spend your efforts and money getting native species established if you don't already have those.   Spend a little research time with "Fruit and nut trees native to ____(insert your region)" then figure out what you already have, and plant what you don't.

For instance, if you don't have black walnut, but you know you want it and it will grow there, go pick up a bucket of the walnuts that are falling right now.  Bury a few around your place (not where you want your main yard or other garden).  I guarantee a better than 10 percent survival rate.  And it's free.

Same for shagbark hickory.

Same for pawpaw, though you may be too late for that. Animals grab the fruit.

Native wild blackberries, raspberries, etc...those will survive. But YOU have to be willing to put up with the thorns that will keep them alive.  (Native wild berries taste SO MUCH BETTER than the hybridized, thornless types, fyi)

I would save the "soft and yummy" fruits for when you get home.  Dwarf varieties of apple will be producing for you within three years.   And those won't survive abandonment.  Don't put your money into that kind of fruit tree.

Go native, or wait until you're here.

YMMV

Good points on the older apples.  However I like the old "from seed"varieties too.  Grow on their own rootstock.   What my grandmother used to call "little white apples."  You don't see many around, and I'd have to do some looking to find one.  Used to be one down the road, but they bulldozed it.

Even the older pears don't do great here without some pampering.  Y'all are a little milder overall, from what I know of my best friend in Potomac.  You might not be in that area, though.

Yes, that is a big deal--the bringing home, and it's for a very good reason.  People have (without knowing) brought diseases from one continent to another that have wiped out whole crops.

Good on you for exerimenting!

Be aware that most of the fruit you are eating is from hybrid varieties, which will not grow true from seed.  You will need to learn vegetative propagation.  Be sure to try cuttings (as one poster above mentioned.)  You can almost certainly get the variety you want here in the states, if you can figure out exactly what you're eating, which will mean finding the grower and asking him/her.

There ARE apples from seed.  There have ALWAYS been apples from seed.

You are thinking like a product of the past 100 years (which, of course, you are.)

If there were no apples from seed, we would not have apples.

NO, the apples I speak of (little white apples) were not crabapples.

Do apples from seed morph?  Yes. As do any sexually produced plants.

Can they still be a viable food source?  Absolutely.

I should add, for clarity, so you don't think I'm an idiot...

Of course they don't produce true.

But they DO PRODUCE.

And if someone is interested in a survival homestead, THAT is the kind of tree you want, because that tree is a survivor, and NO, the apples won't look exactly like a gala from generation to generation, but a-it's still edible fruit and b-grafting is an easy skill to learn once the homesteader is actually on site.

Until then, expecting a "true-to-varietal" apple is not practical.

But he can still have fruit growing on his property in the meantime.

Yes, I think we are talking at the same game from different directions.

And I think both ways are viable.  Of course,  I come from people who survived off the land, and did their own grafting, too.  But there were "volunteer" apple trees all around the area where I grew up, and folks knew where the good ones were.  Some were sour, and some were not, just as you say. Maybe the sour ones got cut down before I was born.  Who knows?  The good ones were allowed to grow, which (in my view) selects for the better stock.  

I happen to be a huge fan of the biodiversity that comes only from sexual reproduction, because I think it's our salvation in future years.   That is not to say I don't like Gala apples.  I buy a bunch of them.

That's a really great looking resource, btw.  If you order from them, will you come back and give us a report either here or in another thread?

One of the things you need to do is identify what you HAVE.

There is no point trying to reproduce what you already have.

If you have walnut and hickory and quince. you don't need to plant that.

I don't get the sense that you know what's on your property at present.

If that's not correct, please say so.