If the comp is on the end of a dead end road it's all the more fun, because by the time you get turned around with a three point turn (bear in mind there are no rural culdesacs)....every homeowner in the neighborhood is looking to see who the intruder is, how well armed you are and why you're there......they scowl and frown because they know you must be either a bill collecter, revenuer or worse.....the dogs know better.....they know why you're there.....why the dogs understand is still a mystery to me......I canalways recognize that "appraiser bark".....it starts in a bass or baritone and works up to an ear splitting falsetto......every dog within 3 miles knows you'll soon be riding by and they're arranging the gauntlet......dogs also know that once you get that picture you'll have the good sense to never go down that road again and they make you pay for every second while you're there.
Bobby, I've been down that road a number of times. Or at least similar ones. One is exceptionally memorable. It was for an estate, an a retrospective appraisal and the effective date was nine years earlier. I was looking for the comps, and I was about 15 miles outside civilization. The dogs didn't worry me as too much cause I very seldom get out of the car in those areas, without checking for loose gators, rattlesnakes, and cottonmouths. Coral snakes don't like that kind of area, so I didn't worry about them. The real problem was not only was there no sign on the street anywhere with a name on that could show me I was on the right road, not one address was listed on any entrance any where on the street.
I guess everyone on the street knew where they lived and didn't need no stinkin address sign. Don't ask me how they get their mail? I figured they must all have post office boxes. The only way I could guess it was the right street was to look at the map and count the number of streets from the last names street. Then I checked the plat map to count the number of sites from the corner to the site I needed. Of course, with most houses had a minimum of five acres and most a lot more. So trees and brush obscured everything except the gate with a big sign, "keep out, bad dog"
Well, if I can't prove the address, I guess nobody can disprove it so I took a picture of the most likely gate and used it. I figured if I can guess the condition the property and comparables were in nine years ago, I could surely guess which property it was.
So it all ended well, I didn't even have to use any pepper spray. It don't bother the gators, but the snakes don't like it. Back thirty years ago I used to catch the rattlers as I had someone who would give a dollar a foot for them, and that was good money in those days. But since then he moved out the area, and no one else seems interested in them. We don't even have any moonshiners anymore, when the old Sheriff retired, actually the Governor retired him, all the moonshiners gave it up.
Thats it from SW Florida
Jim McGrath
