Some listing appointments start with coffee.
 This one started with a rifle.

It was opening day of deer season in Pope Valley a wide, quiet stretch of land where the hills roll and cell service doesn’t. I was meeting one of the owners to list an 80-acre property just open grass, a few scorched remains from the last fire, and no structures left standing.

He seemed like a nice guy. We shook hands. He said, “Want to walk the property?”
 “Of course,” I said figuring we’d wander, talk pricing, maybe chat about comps.

Then he said, “Let me grab something from my truck.”

I assumed boots. Maybe water. Definitely not what came next.
 He walks back, calm as can be, with a rifle slung over his shoulder.

I blinked. “What’s with the rifle?”
 “It’s opening day,” he said. “If there’s a buck out here, I’m gonna shoot it.”

Now, I’ve hunted all my life. But this wasn’t my friend from hunting camp. I didn’t know this guy; didn’t know if he was safe, sober, or just auditioning for a Dateline episode. So I smiled, nodded, and thought: I’m definitely agreeing with his price today.

We walked the land. No deer, thankfully. Just conversation about his siblings, the sale, what they lost in the fire. By the time we circled back to the trucks, the rifle felt less like a threat and more like context: this was his world, and I was just walking through it.

He listed with me. I sold it.

What stuck with me wasn’t the gun. It was how fast trust can flip one moment of calm, one shared laugh, one sign you’re not judging.

Real estate isn’t about houses or land; it’s about human temperature control. You walk into strangers’ lives on their terms, not yours. Sometimes those terms involve coffee. Sometimes they involve rifles.

The job is the same; stay steady, stay curious, and earn enough trust that people lower their guard  even when it’s literally slung over their shoulder.

I didn’t leave Pope Valley that day with a deer. I left with a reminder; in this business, the wildest stories aren’t in the listings they’re in the people who own them.