I don't even let strangers in my house, let alone in my reptile room. I could be selling them a dirty sock - I'd still meet them in public. My local sales are all through Craigslist so that plays into it as well. Frankly, I don't trust people in my personal space. I wouldn't invite a co-worker over to my house unless I had broken down certain trust and social walls first. Trust is earned for me, not a given.

If I had a facility that wasn't in my home, I would probably let motivated buyers in to see a particular animal or two. I would not be giving free tours for kicks and definitely would have some state of the art security features. Think how quickly you could slide open a tub and pocket a snake. I have a small collection and check them daily, but assuming I had a separate facility from my home - there is a good chance there would be enough animals in there that it might take me a few days before noticing that one is gone.

As far as making exceptions at home for friends and family, I kind of pre-screen people to see if they would enjoy or be disturbed by the animal room. I mean, I have a bin with thousands of roaches in it. I have teeming hordes of rats in there. There is a snake watching you from behind at all times (racks on opposite sides of the room). This kind of stuff just isn't for everybody. If they're in my house, then I respect them enough to not try to get some shock value out of showing them things they don't care about or are made uncomfortable by.