We tried to go into the back entrance of Sun City Hilton Head yesterday, but fast realized the gate was coming down too quickly to zip through without a pass. Which was my suggestion to my husband. Oh, just hurry up and follow that car in. Because that method always works for a Sacramento real estate agent without a passcode or auto reader in the vehicle. But the electronic arms are really fast in the south, where one might expect things to move more slowly and they do except for THIS.

I have clients who have bought and sold homes in Sun City Lincoln and in other Over-55 Active Adult Communities such as Heritage Park in Natomas. But those pale in comparison to Sun City Hilton Head. Why, not only do seniors end up not paying any state income tax, the property taxes are ridiculously low as well. South Carolina is a great state for retirees hoping to save money or live on battered retirement accounts.

My husband’s family has a home in Sun City Hilton Head, so I was treated to a first-hand experience. There many differences between this Sun City and say Sun City in Lincoln, California. For example, the streets are laid out mostly in curves. The homes are oriented on the lots to maximum distractions or annoyances from the neighbors — in other words, they are not lined up in rows looking like duplicates of each other. The designs are very distinctive. Not a tiled roof in my vision path. And many of the homes are situated on ponds or lakes or other inlets of water.

I could be wrong about this but it seems that the home designs and locations seem to take advantage of the environment and work around the natural habitation instead of chopping it all down or draining it. This appears to be a very quiet area where nothing evil lurks except maybe that alligator.

Yes, there is an alligator in the pond out my family’s back door. And a Snowy Great Egret. Cardinals and bluebirds. Of course, there is a golf course. And swimming pools. Clubhouse. Rec room, heck, even a movie theater with a 500 person capacity. It’s got almost everything. But the drawback is one is removed from urban civilization and plopped down in a field among other people mostly all hailing from other states. I guess it beats sitting around and listening to strangers yak about mutual hometown friends and high schools or, worse, being hated by the natives because you’re not from there.

Still, there are no grocery stores, no shopping centers, no museums or art galleries, no restaurants or music halls, none of the stuff you’d find in an actual city. But it’s close enough to heaven for most folks or they wouldn’t have chosen Sun City for retirement.