M6| Friday, August 2, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
IN THE TRENCHES|AMY GAMERMAN
Home Showings
Go Into the Wild
Real-estate agents tell about unexpected
run-ins with Mother Naturewith the tour, pointing out all the
beautiful finishes, like the onyx
countertop in the kitchen.Mr. Luciano:Wegottothe
guesthouse by the pool and the
pool cabana, and they were like,
“Is there a bathroom here?” And
that’s when it all went downhill. I
was looking through the window
into the bathroom and saw some-
thing on the floor. I was thinking,
“What is that? That is very odd.” I
open the door and there are liter-
ally more than 100 scorpions on
the floor. I slammed the door and
said, “There’s a funny odor.”Mr. Siqueiros:But I was trying to
show them the spot. I said,
“That’s not a big deal with the
odor, it’s a smell, they’ll get over
it!” But Jack was like, “No, it’s re-
ally foul” and started walking
away. At one point, he even
grabbed the missus’s wrist and
pulled heraway,talking abouthow beautiful her Cartier watch
was. As the three of them started
walking toward the pool, I looked
in and saw the scorpions. After
the clients left we immediately
contacted the sellers, and they
hired these scorpion hunters. They
are like tornado chasers—they
love this [expletive].Mr. Luciano:They’re insane. They
come at night wearing these little
black lights on their heads.Mr. Siqueiros:They looked like
they were going into the Outback.
They were scouring the yard look-
ing for the nest and the queen
mother scorpion.Mr. Luciano:It’s all cleaned up.
They were so on top of the scor-
pion issue. But at this point, we
have to disclose there were scorpi-
ons; we have to fill out a seller
property-disclosure statement.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY DIETER BRAUN —Edited from interviews
TODD RENFREW
Broker-owner
California Outdoor Properties
Vacaville, Calif.It’s an 8,000-acre ranch property
near a town called Elk Creek, about
two hours northwest of Sacra-
mento. The owner runs 300 head
of buffalo on it—he always loved
them as a kid—and it is also a
hunting property. It has wild pigs
and deer and elk. It has fishing. It
has turkeys.
I was showing the ranch to these
two macho guys—brothers who
were hunters. They woke up early to
get to the ranch and see some
game, but it’s one of those things:
When someone is into hunting
and you bring them out
there to see animals, you
don’t see a thing.
There is a lake
cabin on the property
and the guys wanted
to see it. We
drove up, got
out of the
[all-terrain ve-
hicle] and
went on the
dock to look
at the lake. We
turned to walk
inside the cabin and
out of nowhere this
buffalo came out, 3feet away. Buffalo are
pretty big, so you’d
think we would have
seen it, but we were
shocked. The macho
hunters and I were
pretty much running to the ATV.
The buffalo just stood there and
we took off. It was a female, which
we were thankful for. If it was a bull,
we would have gotten tossed like ro-
deo clowns. Buffalo look so calm, but
they can get mean.
The guys were laughing, like,
“What the heck was that?”
I think they got a kick out of it.
They put in an offer on the ranch.
But they are cow men; they
wanted the buffalo off.
The good thing is the buffalo
found all the weak spots in the fenc-
ing. There’s 20 miles of new fencing
now.RAUL SIQUEIROS
JACK LUCIANO
Partners
The Agency, Scottsdale, Ariz.Mr. Luciano:We typically show
very big estates. This was a mas-
sive 11,000-square-foot house, a
$5 million property in one of the
most prestigious parts of Phoenix.Mr. Siqueiros:Wegotintothe
house and walked into the foyer,
which had soaring floor-to-ceiling
windows, and the first thing that
happened is that a bird crashed
into the window and died right
there. The buyers were like, “Oh,
my God!” The bird died instantly;
it didn’t suffer. It hit the glass so
hard it left a bird-print on the
window—you could see the wings.Mr. Luciano:I was like, “Oh, that’s
really good luck, I think!’Mr. Siqueiros:So we proceededQ:
Has wildlife ever
crashed one of
your showings?MANSION
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