This is a great thread.

When we first started getting serious about getting a snake, we took a while deciding between a corn snake and a BP. One thing we wanted was to see adults of each species. I happened to notice someone on KS who was local and selling both species, and so I contacted him and explained. He would not allow us to come to his "facility" (which he said was his house), but offered to meet us at a neutral location and bring some adults as well as some babies we might be interested in buying. As it turned out, we didn't meet him because before it got arranged we went to MARS and got our BP there. But I was still very impressed with his willingness to go out of his way and to be so helpful.

Good breeders will do similar things, but I agree with everyone here that there is nothing wrong with them wanting to keep strangers away from their home and/or facility. Also, there is nothing "shady" about not being willing to go out of their way like this. Maybe they don't have time or who knows? But that doesn't make it shady.

One point that hasn't been brought up is that it may actually be illegal or at least against HOA rules to run a store-front type business from your home in some locations. One more reason why some breeders may not want to do this.