I need a fence across hundreds of feet of my property in the woods, which crosses a creek twice. The reason is that the homeowners on the other side of the woods sometimes clear their land of undergrowth, which is fine, but I need a demarcation line to show where their land ends and mine begins to avoid mistakes. At least five houses “back up” to my property.

I called three fence companies to get estimates. The man who came yesterday asked if I could get the footage from the surveyors (even though the other companies could calculate it) and finally said, “Look, if we do this, we’ll be the most expensive, let me tell you that now.”

“Why is that?” I said.

He replied, “Because we’re large and have a lot of overhead, raw materials have gone up, and labor costs are rising.”

“That’s the wrong answer,” I told him. “I often tell people that I’ll be their most expensive option, but that’s because I’m the best, the highest quality, the fastest.”

He looked at me as if I had just told him that kale was growing out of his ears. Maybe labor costs have gone up, but I hope the owners aren’t paying him too much! Imagine, THIS is the guy you send to close business. He’s looking a six acres of property in total, a seven-figure home, and he’s warning me that his company is expensive. Clueless.