ONETIME- Naked buyer: She found her dream house

Realtor Ray Caddell
PHOTO BY RYAN HOOVER

One time, I got a call from a guy who was working and couldn't look at houses personally, so he was letting his wife narrow down their choices to just a couple. When she had finally chosen, he would race down, and we'd make a deal. That all sounded great to me: real estate agents like deals that move quickly and people who have to have housing in a hurry. 

So I picked this woman up at her husband's workplace, and she was pretty flashily dressed, but it was 10 o'clock in the morning. It was fine with me. We went from house to house, and nothing was quite right. 

Then we found one that she liked very much which had a really nice master bath with a Jacuzzi. And she said, "Oh, we have a Jacuzzi in our house that we just sold. The problem was it was so big and we had a small hot water heater, and I could never get enough hot water in it to really use it properly." 

She said, "I like this house a lot. Do you think that you could fill this up with hot water?" I said, "I think so. Turn it on– we'll find out." 

She turned on the tub, it's filling up, and she said, "Do you think it would be okay if I used the bathroom?" And I said, "Sure." So she shut the door and I was in the house somewhere. And a few minutes later, she said, "Come on up. I think it works fine." 

And I went up and she was naked in the Jacuzzi. 

I'll never forget this– it looked like a movie shoot– she had on a leopard fur coat, which was strewn across the bathroom floor. She was in the tub. I nervously said, "What do you think of the tub?" She said, "It's perfect! We'll take it!" And I said, "That's good. I'll meet you downstairs." And they bought the house. 

On a more serious note, most of my colleagues across the country are women in this business. It's been a very, very common thing for many, many years. And it's a little different situation because I was a man, but it's really important if you're out showing a house, particularly a vacant house, by yourself with just one other person, safety needs to be an important factor. We talk about it often here in sales meetings. I'll often go on appointments with my female realtors to be more careful. This applies just as much to potential buyers: don't visit a house alone. 

I've been doing this for 27 years, and I've been bitten by a dog and fallen through a ceiling in an attic, but I think that was the funniest thing that ever happened to me. 

#

[Note: the photo credit above originally bore the name of another photographer. It has been corrected in this archived online edition.]