When the Only Thing Left to Do is Climb the Fence

We suspect many Sacramento Realtors climb the fence when necessary.

Here is the thing, if a Sacramento Realtor does not want to climb the fence, then she should not put her lockbox on a gas meter behind the gate. Further, for sellers, if you think that by locking your gate you are keeping intruders out of your yard, think again.  Maybe you’re keeping wild turkeys at bay, but if somebody really wants to get into your yard, they will. Like even a gym-challenged Realtor who is 5-feet tall. I studied the situation. Yes, anybody can probably scale that fence, if she was smart about it. Determination counts, too. I am typically a pretty determined person. Tell me I can’t do it, and I’ll do it.

A client asked if I would withdraw her listing from MLS last week. We had sold her home for $15,000 over list price because at the time we received an offer, she was ready to take her home off the market. You know human nature and how some buyers are, right? Sometimes they don’t want the home until they find out they can’t have it. Which is how this particular home ended up selling for $15,000 over the sales price. I figured the appraisal would come in low, but also believed the appraisal would at least meet list price and we could renegotiate later, if we had to.

Turns out, due to lovely HVCC, we got saddled with some yo-yo appraiser. He decided he could not figure out how to adjust the comps to allow for using updated homes that were smaller and on smaller lots. He didn’t know how much to allocate for those minor kitchen remodels, so he ignored those comparable sales. As a result, the home appraised for $50,000 less than the sales price. It was for an FHA loan, too, so it had a case number, which would be pulled for the next FHA buyer. Any new FHA buyers were stuck with the low appraisal.

The seller promised to leave the gate open so I could retrieve the lockbox. Sure enough, the gate was locked. The fence was a bit over 6 feet. Yup, a situation where I would have to climb the fence.

If you’re ever wondering about which way to nail the boards on a fence you’re building, consider this. If the vertical posts are on the outside, you would provide a stepping place for a person to put her foot before heaving herself over your fence. However, this fence had the good side facing out and the bad side on the inside. There was no place to put my foot. I don’t do pull-ups for an exercise and therefore could not pull myself up the fence. Free-weights, that’s the ticket.

I could have called the seller, but that would have entailed waiting 30 minutes or more for her to get over there. I could have gone back to my home office and come back another day, but what the hey, I was already there. My outfit consisted of sheared corduroy pants, an Eileen Fischer silk shell, topped by a Merino wool sweater. My shoes? A cranberry patent leather with heels. Did I let that unsuitable ensemble stop me? I walked around the home but found no good access points.

The fact that the neighbors might call the police did cross my mind. But like a driver who often spins U-turns in the middle of the street by offering the excuse, “Hey, I’m allowed because I’m a real estate agent,” I figured that excuse would also work for crawling over a fence. If I needed more of an explanation, I suppose I could also add that I sell a lot of Sacramento real estate. Surely, the police would have pity on me then.

I finally decided to climb a juniper tree in the corner. Put my toe on a protruded nail halfway up and literally pulled myself to the top of the fence by using a tree limb as support. The important thing here was I elected to rest after I was perched on top of the fence. I didn’t care what passersby thought. Too busy enjoying the satisfaction that I could actually climb the fence. Catching my breath, too.

Getting down was actually pretty easy, and I didn’t scratch my shoes or tear my clothes. Best of all, my display key for my lockbox was still intact in my pocket. Bonanza.

The next time this happens, I will do the smarter thing. The smarter thing, instead of trying to climb the fence, is to go to a neighbor’s house and borrow a ladder.

This blog was previously published elsewhere 7 years ago and is provided for your reading enjoyment as Elizabeth makes her way back to Kona from New Year’s in Honolulu.