The kindness of neighbors

        A touching story from Savannah Lakes, the sprawling and rural golf community in South Carolina, near the Georgia border, reminds us of the kindness of strangers, even those with whom you might have been in tough negotiations for the sale of a home. It also says something about extreme customer service by a real estate agent.

        Michael Sherard, the principal real estate professional at Savannah Lakes, published a story in his monthly customer newsletter about a couple from Texas he helped to purchase a re-sale home in Savannah Lakes. After the sale of the home but before they moved to Savannah Lakes, the Texas couple’s beloved dog of 15 years passed away. They were crushed and,

as any dedicated pet owner will understand, did not want to leave their beloved’s remains behind in Texas. The couple that sold them the house in Savannah Lakes agreed to let them bury their pet in the backyard of what was not quite yet their new home. And who took on the role of gravedigger? It was realtor Sherard, who volunteered to dig and prepare the pooch’s eternal resting place. Kindnesses all around.

        I heard another kindness-of-neighbors story recently during a two-day golf outing in a coastal South Carolina community. In our foursome was a resident of the community, and as we passed a home that was nearing final construction, he told us the following story. The man who was building the house paid a visit to check out the late stages of construction. The next-door neighbors, who had lived there for a few years, were away on the day of his visit but heard he had been there. They contacted the golf club for his home phone number up north and called his house to introduce themselves and welcome the couple to the community. His wife answered, and when they said they were sorry they had missed her husband’s visit, she responded: “We aren’t building a house there?”

        As it turned out, they weren’t building a house, but her husband was -- for himself and his mistress. He was waiting, the story goes, until the house was finished before telling his wife. We wonder how that first conversation with his new neighbors went after he moved in.

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        If Savannah Lakes, which features two 18-hole layouts and reasonably priced real estate adjacent to large Lake Thurmond, sounds like a place you might consider for a vacation home or permanent home, contact me and I will put you in touch with Michael Sherard.  And if your curiosity has the best of you, and you want to know the identity of the golf community in the second story, let me know and I will share it.