I have to admit that for many of my years Thanksgiving was just about turkey, dressing and football.  But then in 1992 my life changed forever.  I've thought about it more this year than in years past because of the days on the calender this year.  You see in 1992, Thanksgiving was also on November 26th.  And the Sunday before thanksgiving was when a disaster hit and changed things.  It was a warm day. I was in town at a meeting with my 4 year old in tow planning my 10 year high school class reunion.  A storm was brewing with some nasty looking clouds so I decided to head home.

On my drive home I saw on the horizon a tornado and it began to hail on my truck.  I pulled over (no shelter) and put my little 4 year old in the floor board with a jacket over her and then put myself over her.  I really thought that hail was going to break my windshield.  I can't tell you how long we stayed like that, although I can tell you that it felt like an eternity.  When the hail stopped I buckled Abigail back into her car seat and headed the 3 miles I had left to go home.  When I turned on my street I found I could not get home because so many trees were down in the street.

I stopped 1 mile short of my house to talk with a neighbor that had a tree through his dining room window.  I was anxious to get home so he let me drive through his yard to go around the tree blocking the road in front of his house.  There were several homes I passed, power lines were down and popping and I was pretty scared and worried about my parents.  I lived with them at the time after my divorce.  Then about half a mile from my house 7 homes were gone.  Completely gone.  Just the foundations remained and I was in pure panic and so was my daughter.  There were no standing trees, no homes and I saw some of the wildest things you can imagine... like a bath tub wrapped around a tree truck.

I actually had to get out of my truck and move a tree.  Now I know you are thinking that little ole Tammy couldn't move a tree, but let me tell you when you are that scared you can move an entire tree.  I was back in my truck and driving slowly when I met a car.  It was my father, but not his car.  He was driving a neighbor who had a huge hunk of metal stuck into his face to the hospital.  We couldn't call 911 because there were NO phones.  He told me mom was okay, but the house was a wreck and to be really careful of all the downed power lines.

I headed on home to find we had what turned out to be $30,000. in damages, no power.  Needless to say I was very Thankful to see my mother and she was VERY THANKFUL to see me and her only Grandchild.  Now my little Abigail she had ONE thing on her mind at this point.  She was worried about her swing set.  And by the grace of God while trees had crushed my dad's ski boat about 6 feet from the swing set, it sat there unharmed at all.  The chains on the swings were twisted and tangled, but still unharmed.

There would be no turkey in the oven at our house that Thanksgiving.

And while there was a tree IN my room, 7 on the roof of the house, one in the septic tank and over a hundred down on the 2.5 acres my parents owned, the storage room that had all my "stuff" in it had a huge tree down across it and things I had stored after my divorce were all ruined.  The biggest loss for me was a baby crib.  My PAPA had bought it second hand in Washington DC when my mother was born for $5.00.  My Grandmother had painted little bears on it and refinished it.  My mom had used it, then her three little sisters and her brother.  Then I slept in that crib, then my little brother, then my cousins, then my own daughter.  The insurance company had nothing to offer that would ever make that better.

Of course my things I lost were not at all sad compared to 3 of the people in my community who lost their lives that day.  Not all all sad compared to the people who were in the hospital, not at all sad compared to my 7 neighbors who had NOTHING left.

It was a week before we had power restored to our house.  I did not sleep that night, it was raining into our house.  We weren't leaving to go to a hotel for fear of looters.  On Monday our family came.  My aunt took my daughter home with her and the work began.  Sometime around 9 am a local deputy pulled up and opened his trunk and had fried bologna sandwiches and hot coffee.  I was very Thankful for it too.  The rest of the week the Salvation Army had a truck to come by with hot meals once a day.  On Thursday... Thanksgiving 1992 a host of people from my church, my family and my community showed up at our house with all the Thanksgiving food. So we all took a break from cleaning up the mess and stopped to give thanks to God for what we had, for our lives, for our family, for our church family and for our friends.

My X-husband (who is generally speaking not a really nice guy) even showed up and helped an entire day to rebuild a storage building.  My uncle came with a well house to cover our well, my other uncle came and they cut up trees and we burned limbs and worked.  By this time tarps covered the holes and the insurance adjusters had come and repairs were under way.  I did more physical labor in the next few weeks than ever before or since in my life.

I haven't been neglectful in giving thanks to God since.  It was a life lesson in what is really important in life.  A home isn't a house, it's a place where your family lives.  Family and friends are a blessing in life that you should never take for granted. 

Thanksgiving for me is very special now and this year because the dates are the same I've spent a lot of time reflecting about that day.  And while a tiny little part of me will forever be heartbroken that my own future grand babies will never get to sleep in my mama's second hand crib I have moved on and remained thankful that even after a tornado took "things" away from me I was left with all my loved ones.  I am still a little leary when black clouds roll in and tornado warnings are posted for my area.  But always on Thanksgiving I remember the blessings from 1992.

So I wish for all of you to have a very Happy Thanksgiving, make sure you tell your family and friends that you love them.  And make a special effort to go out of your way to help someone in need this year.  I am ever so Thankful for the very special kindness of those and I knew and loved and that of complete strangers that I have always made an effort to help someone in need around Thanksgiving.  You never know when the kindness you show someone might just be that act of kindness that changes their life forever.

I am fortunate that I have a wonderful family.  My mom and dad have been happily married for 45 years and they both worked jobs that allowed for wonderful long summer vacations.  My mom didn't work until I was about a year and half old and then took another year off work when my little brother was born.  I remember my dad used to take off the two to three weeks I was out of school for the Christmas holidays.  And when my parents worked, for the most part we stayed at my grandparents house up the street.  Of course occasionally one of our Aunts or cousins was our babysitter as well.  Holidays were wonderful family times and I have great memories.

Time passes and things change.  Both my parents are retired now... and like always available for any holiday celebration.  The rest of the family... not so easy. 

First there is my husband.  6 days on, 3 days off 5:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.  You see, they don't let all the prisoners go home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so somebody has to be there to watch them.  His job does come with some nice benefits, we have good insurance and it offers a nice retirement package.  So we deal with the holidays as they come. 

Then there is my brother, he's a GM of a restaurant that happens to cater on Thanksgiving to families, who don't have to have time to shop and cook, but still want to sit down to that Turkey and/or ham with dressing, gravy and all the trimmings.  To make this happen my brother starts working in the middle of the night before Thanksgiving getting literally hundreds of "Thanksgiving to go" meals ready for pickup.

And now there's my daughter's boyfriend.  And thankfully they also don't close the fire department (just in case someone has a Thanksgiving disaster) and he has to work too.  So we have a plan.

Thanksgiving comes to the Lankford clan a day early.  So on Wednesday while you all are working we'll be sitting down at my house this year to have all the trimmings and need a nap by 1:00.  It's okay by me that our "Thanksgiving" is a day FREE of football. :) I'd much rather see As the World Turns anyway.

But on Thanksgiving Day while the rest of you are having your feast, we'll be taking a turkey sandwich to work. And I'll be having one at home while I clean up from our early celebration.  (Well not my brother)  I think by the end of the day he doesn't want to see turkey again for another year.

So enjoy your Thanksgiving.  We certainly will enjoy ours.

And Lane Realty will be closed this week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to give all the agents time to be with their families.  Of course we can and will be available by appointment.

I actually wrote my second contract on Thanksgiving Day the year I got my real estate license, but that's a story for antoher day.

It is in my nature to trust.  I always give the benefit of the doubt and trust people until they give me a reason not to.  This week I got one, no, make that a dozen reasons not to trust someone that my initial instincts told me not to trust from the first moment I saw him.

I'm not about to say that because a person "looks like" he belongs in prison he should be there, but in this case I now believe that is exactly where this person should be.

As a favor to a friend I helped a potential seller with a lease/purchase agreement.  I didn't like the looks of the purchaser, but the seller, my friend, has a son who has a "past", but had straightened his life out.  He wanted to give this young man an opportunity to become a home owner. 

It didn't work out the way we had hoped it would 6 months ago.

I will start with... the purchaser lied about having the power switched to his name and the seller trusted him and never checked.  Oh and the water bill too.  I went to court on Wednesday with the seller to get a judgment for the September and October rents.  We both know that although the judge issued this order the seller will never pay a dime of those unpaid rents.

Today my friend stopped by my office and told me he had to pay over $1,000.00 in unpaid utility bills to get the utilities turned back on.  The house is trashed and my friend will have to pay additional thousands of dollars to replace the carpet, paint, and clean.  Oh and when the power was turned off they left food in the closed refrigerator and it's no longer usable.

We sat on the back porch and laughed about it all.  After all crying would not do any good. 

It is really a shame that when someone with WAY less than perfect credit was given an opportunity to lease and then purchase a home with owner financing from someone willing to "take a chance" on a young person who had made mistakes that he ruined that chance.

I can't say that I would never support giving the same type of person a second change again, I know myself and I know I would.  But the lessons I take from this and would like to share is...

Trust, but check.

My friend should have checked with the power and water company to see if the buyer/renter had actually switched the utilities and he should have made visits to the home to see the condition.  I should have insisted he do these things.  So as I take away this lesson... I'm hoping that anyone reading this will also afford people second chances, but still... check. 

I am not telling any person in Georgia that you should vote for this candidate for Governor, but I am asking that you at least check him out before you cast your vote next year in the primary.  I'm personally supporting Ray.  I feel strongly that his views on policy reflect many of my own views.  I am thrilled with some of the legislation that he has already authored in part that will be introduced as early as January in the state legislation.

Ray McBerry is a strong beliver in state's rights.  I'm excited about his campaign tours and look forward to getting to meet him when he visits near by.  But the most exciting thing about Ray McBerry to me is that he isn't a politician at all.  He's a small business owner, so I know that he sees the struggles of these economic times and faces the same problems I face as a small business owner.

So just do me the favor of getting to know a little more about Ray McBerry before you cast your vote in 2010.  And read the legislation that Ray helped author that will be introduced in the state house in January.

Politics, while not something I discuss with clients every day, are important to the housing market.  And I think it's a good thing to research all the candidates you consider before casting your vote.  I have been reading about candidates running for Georgia's next Governor for weeks and the conclusion I reached was that Ray McBerry is more like the rest of us regular Georgians and our rights and he got bonus points for not making a career out of politics.

If you ever read my blog before you might know that I adore my nearly perfect husband.  Last Thursday after a particularly stressful day at the office that ended with an agent finding one of her listing left unsecured by another agent being the 5:01 issue... my sweet husband showed up at the office to go take down one of my signs and take me to our weekly "date night".

There's a new place in downtown Milledgeville, which is actually filled with a wonderful array of dining, called the Asian Bar and Grill.  For those of you familiar with downtown Milledgeville it's three doors left of "The Brick".  If you haven't been downtown in a long time, it's below my old college hangout "The Opera House". 

We were greeted and seated promptly and it's decor is really nice.  They have a huge fish tank filled with koi and they were fun to watch.  The offer a full bar and Asian dining choices around the globe.  You can choose from Thai, Chinese, Korean and Japanese among others.  My husband went with Curry Chicken and I choose Shakey Beef from the Korean menu choices.  It was a beautiful plate and the beef just melted in my mouth. 

Sometimes when we eat in downtown Milledgeville and the weather is nice we walk around and window shop.  Thursday was no exception.  There are some really nice antique places downtown and it's always fun to "people watch" with the college kids in town milling around.  (Don't college kids keep getting younger and younger?) 

The Asian Bar and Grill which did come through with a fabulous dinner and excellent atmosphere in which to enjoy it did leave us hanging when it came to dessert.  My Donald doesn't feel the dining out experience is quite complete without dessert, so our walk ended up at Blackbird Coffee Shop.  Blackbird coffee shop is also a wonderful little place and it was really hard to choose which dessert I wanted with my coffee because they ALL looked so good.  We ended ordering 4 "bites" which are just what the name implies.... bites.   We choose a chocolate tart bite, a coconut macaroon bite, a cream puff bite and an eclair bite.  We took them all nicely boxed up home with our coffee and had dessert at home.

So if you are looking for a really nice date night place, downtown Milledgeville has a lot to offer and I highly recommend the Asian Bar and Grill and dessert and coffee from Blackbird.

And if you are having stress of your own from buying or selling property, just call me, I'd be more than happy to handle the stress for you and help you with your sale or purchase.

Last night I went out to dinner with my husband and then we stopped by the Verizon store because it was time for me to get a new phone.  I love their coverage, so I choose to stay with Verizon, but I have to admit I'm never usually satisfied with the service in the local store and last night was again, no exception.

First of all, there were 5 employees in the store and 3 customers, yet I still had to wait.  I truly do not like to wait.  I'm known for asking for the first appointment of the day for doctor visits, dental visits and haircuts, but I just don't like to waste my time waiting.  When I have an appointment to show property to a doctor, dentist, or hairdresser I don't make them sit in my office and wait to start seeing property.  But I stood and waiting, because even though you have to wait, they have NO CHAIRS for you to sit and wait.

I already wasn't in the best of moods because our dining experience had been one where the manager had called us a "training table" and my husbands meal was comped.  The food was okay, although my husband's not cooked to order dinner was much better than the manager who got all up in my personal space to apologize.  I don't like people in my personal space too much either.

So after about half an hour of waiting, while in a bad mood, it was FINALLY my turn for service.  I explained my phone needs to the clerk and also told her of the brand name I prefer because I've  had good service and own stock in a particular company.  That seemed to aggravate her somewhat.  But finally I settled on my new phone and she looked at my ID and went to work.  I requested she transfer my contacts and she said okay.  Finally after more waiting she handed me both my old and my new phone and we were on our way.

On the drive home I asked my husband to call my phone.... I wanted to see what the ring setting was and decide if I liked it, but that didn't happen.  Instead my husband got a message that my phone was not in service. Oh that's not good.  Now we had left the store after closing hours, so it wasn't like I could turn around and head back to the store.

I had gotten my last phone via the mail (and I expect will get ever phone I ever get this way in the future) and remembered that if you dial *228 you can "activate" a new phone.  So I tried it and it worked.  But still none of my contact numbers are in my new phone.  I have to go back to the store and wait again.  And that's not making me very happy. 

So if you buy a new phone... do two things before you leave... make sure it works and make sure your contacts have been successfully transferred.

And if you want to see property, and don't want to have to wait.... call me, I PROMISE I'll be ready before your appointment time and have properties lined up for you to see.  Thankfully living at Lake Sinclair is very relaxing and no matter how stressful your day is, your evenings at home looking out over the beautiful lake will make it all better.

My new listing, priced at $199,900 isn't about the "house", although there is a very 1216 sq. ft. singlewide manufactured home in great condition with 2 Bedroom and 2 full baths, a large covered porch, on nearly an acre with 125 feet of shoreline with seawall built.  There's also a beautiful view.  The lot is very gentle sloping from the house to the lake. 

It would make a really nice weekend/vacation place for wonderful memories to be spent on weekends and summers on Lake Sinclair.

But ideally at some point the new owners of this property wil build a lovely retirement home on this Lake Sinclair lot that is fitting for this cul-de-sac.  It's located on a point that is just off the main channel- close enough to have a great view, far enough to not have the beating a seawall takes on holiday weekends on the main channel. 

There is also currently already a dock.  The drinking water is currently supplied by a private well, but the tap fee has been paid to hook to county water if you would prefer.

The greatroom has patio doors overlooking the lake and a nice fireplace.  The open eat-kitchen features a bay window floor to ceiling offering lots of light. 

Again, the price is only $199,900. 

Call today to get more details or set up a viewing of this property located on South Steel Bridge Road on Lake Sinclair.

He who hesistates has no lake house.

Yesterday I read a post by Liz Moras on this subject and it prompted me to talk to buyers in my area a little.

I got a call Saturday evening at home. 

 The customer dialed the office number, but at Lane Realty if you dial our office number after business hours, you still get an agent (please don't call after 11, we do need sleep).  It's been a long standing practice at Lane Realty to forward the phone to a full time agent for customers who call during evening hours or before the office opens at 9 a.m.  We strive to be available when customers/clients need us.  And you never know what time someone might call to make an appointment. 

Back to my call.  The caller had been at Lake Sinclair earlier in the day with a cell phone that had service from a company that didn't offer good service in this area.  He was calling to inquire about the price of a home we have listed.  It was not a clear connection and his cell dropped the call.  The duty agent had tried to reach him back and left voice mail.  Later in the evening he was calling to make an appointment to see the home he had inquired about.  I explained to him that I would get in touch with my agent that had duty that afternoon and have them contact him.  He seemed upset that I would not make an appointment with him.  He said, "It doesn't matter who I talk to, I don't care."

Well, I'm about to explain why I think he should care...

When you are looking for a home on Lake Sinclair there are many avenues to do plenty of looking on line.  You can find houses and photos that peak your interest and call agent after agent to make appointments, but it's my opinion this isn't the best way to find a house that suits you.

It's my opinion that you should first decide if you like this area and would like to purchase at home here and then take the following step.

FIND AN AGENT TO HELP  YOU WITH YOUR SEARCH FOR PROPERTY.

You see, Lake property is a very unique thing and Lake Sinclair has 15,000 acres and 417 miles of unique shoreline.  It's about so much more than finding a neighborhood you like and a house you like.  You need an agent with good communication skills to help you with the so much more.  There are things like:

1. Do you want a boathouse?  a double boathouse?
2. How deep do you want the water?
3. Do you want property with a boat launch?
4. How large would you like your dock?
5. Would you like open view on the main lake or a quiet cove with less boat traffic where your children or grandchildren can play in the water?
6. Do you want an area with building restrictions?
7. When boating are you going to have to let the top down to go under a bridge to get to the main lake?
8. Do you want the best fishing places on the lake?
9. Do you want the best skiing places on the lake?
10. Three counties border the lake with three very different millage rates for property taxes, which is in your budget?
11. Information about schools and hospitals in the three different counties vary also, would how long it would take an ambulance to reach your home matter?  how about a fire truck?
12. There are 4 types of ownership on Lake Sinclair: Fee Simple, Strip lease, residential lease, and full lease.

You see, it's complex, and once you hire an agent who is familiar with these things and let them know what is important to you, you can be emailed lists of properties that would fill all or the most important of your wish list.  We are also as agents familiar with which lenders have products for each type of property you might be considering.  For example if you are looking at a lease lot we know which lender to send you to see, or if you are looking at a manufactured home we have loan officers who do those also. 

So it really is to your benefit as a purchaser to find an agent and hire them.  If you sign a Buyer's Brokerage Agreement that agent is then obligated to work on your behalf to help you find a home.

If you wanted to paint your house and you called Lowe's, Home Depot and Ace Hardware and Sherman Williams to inquire about paint... you are still sitting there with the same color.  If you hire a painter and make a contract you will get your house painted.  Same principle.  If you hire an agent, that agent will work FOR YOU to find your Lake Sinclair home.

At Lane Realty we have a staff of full time agents to help you located and negotiate to find the best house at the best price available.  Just give us a call today if you are looking for a home on Lake Sinclair and would like to HIRE an agent to represent you and help you have a Lake Sinclair home soon.