I was thinking the other day of all those strange things that we do in the real estate biz. Over the years I have had some crazy experiences going that extra mile for clients. Certainly one of the memories that sticks with me is when I was covering for a fellow agent named Kay back in my old home town of Visalia, California. Kay had just listed a very nice home in an area known as Green Acres, which was an upscale neighborhood of uniquely charactered homes. One weekend she had to leave town so I covered her business while she was away.
Sure enough a call came in from an agent anxious to show the new listing to some out of town clients. They had driven by the home and thought it would be perfect for their needs, how soon could they see the inside? Fortunately, the owner was out of town and I informed the agent we could show anytime and an appointment was made within the hour.
Arriving a few minutes early to turn on the lights and open the home I discovered the key to the front door did not work. I walked around and tried all the other doors to no avail, it seemed as if I had the wrong key. When the agent and clients drove up I shared with them the bad news. They of course were very disappointed and being from out of town it would be difficult to reschedule. The agent asked me if there was anyway to get in and I told her not without getting hold of the owner for another set of keys.
Then a thought occurred to me, during my frantic search around the home for a door the key would work, I noticed a rather large dog door. Hmmm, perhaps I could gain access to the interior of the home and let them in. I shared my thoughts with the agent who thought it was a teriffic idea as long as it was me going through the door, and not her.
Feeling my duty to get those poor folks in I went to survey the dog door. At second glance it was not nearly as big as I first thought and I had my doubts about gaining access. It did occur to me the door was large enough to gain access by a very large dog.
However, determined to get them in, I begin to worm my upper body though the door which was quite tight. Several minutes went by until I had managed to wiggle my way half in on my back.
Halfway in the house with my legs dangling outside, I suddenly heard the pounding paws of an fast approaching killer dog. My imagination ran wild guessing, doberman, pit bull, man eating hell hound? Whatever it was, it was fastly approaching the corner into the kitchen, and my futile efforts to extract myself quickly were not working. Everything was that much scarier as my view was upside down as my head laid on the kitchen floor waiting for the dog to round the corner into my line of sight.
Just as I was making my last ditch, panic effort to get myself unstuck, around the bend a rather small and very happy poodle came into view. The friendly dog came to an abrupt stop at my now sweating face and gave my face a friendly lick.
Still rather shaken, I was able to gain access and let the waiting buyers in the front door.
The buyers did not like the house and excused themselves within minutes of opening the door for them with nary a thank you. Just another day in real estate!
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