I look through all the listings this morning and notice that they are all vacant.  I make a small note mentally that one says to call for the gate code.  We arrive at Leisure world and (being the rule follower that I am) I pull to the left side (labeled for visitors) rather than breezing through the open gate on the right side.  We wait for the guard to finish his business with the cars ahead of us and I pull up with my MLS sheets (they’re called Planos) and introduce myself and indicate that I’m a REALTOR and I’ve got three houses to show in there.  Well, apparently this guard really enjoys the power bestowed upon him by the high and mighty Leisure World gods and is not about to let some terrorist REALTOR invade during his watch.  Here’s how the conversation went:

Me:  Hi, I’m Shar Rundio with Keller Williams Realty. I’m checking in and will be showing three houses that are for sale in your community (smile).

Guard:  Do you have the house numbers? (grumpy pants)

ME:  I sure do!  They are 555…55..

Guard:  SLOW DOWN!

Me:  Ohhhh, OK.  5…….5……5,     5……5……5,    5………5………5

Guard:  Do you have an appointment with the homeowners?

Me:  ummm…no, the houses are vacant.  (“estate sale” leads me to believe that at least one owner had an unavoidable appointment)

Guard:  Well you have to have an appointment! 

Me:  With whom?  The houses are vacant.  I have the lockbox key and permission from the listing agents to show them.

Guard:  Well you can’t just go trespassing on private property without an appointment!  You need to go down to the real estate office and make an appointment.

Me:  Seriously?  Are you kidding me?  You’re not going to let me in?

Guard:  You can make a u-turn ahead.

I seriously considered backing up and flying through the (still open) gate on the other side.  What was he going to do? Run me down in his golf cart?  He would have had to leave his post and that would have taken some time to get out from behind his glass window and besides, what other crazy REALTOR might have entered illegally?  But, I was trying to be good with clients in the car.  

So instead I call and speak with two of the three listing agents for the houses I want to show (one of whom was as befuddled as I) and one says that he’ll call and put my name on the secret list of allowed people for that morning.  We drive to the other entrance and arrive just in time for the call to come in allowing safe passage into the land of Leisure World.  We did break the rules and look at the other two (which I still didn’t have permission to “trespass” upon) and laughed the whole time that they were probably going to show up on their golf carts and have us removed.  

The events of this morning leave me pondering several things:

• While I wouldn’t call it trespassing, isn’t taking people into other people’s personal property what I do all day long?
• And isn’t that what the sellers want?
• What is so important about Leisure World that requires such stringent visitor rules?  Who do they think they are, Fort Knox?
• Does anyone really dress up in their REALTOR costume (complete with MLS lockbox key and planos) and take two elderly women and a 50-yr old daughter as a cover to invade Leisure World?
• Who could rob/vandalize/whatever a place where people are driving by on their golf carts waiving every 2 minutes?
• Who gets their kicks by being such a butthead?  (sorry it’s evening now and the pleasantries have left)

What are your thoughts?