They have always been able to get in the door if I click inside the house and choose go here, or click on something inside for them to interact with, so it's not that they can't get in at all, they just won't go in when they come home from off the lot.
So after reading what the two of you suggested, I checked for jigs, and found none. Then I moved the gate, and the sim I sent off the lot to test it still wouldn't go inside when he came back. So I finally evicted the family, saved and bulldozed the lot, replaced the house and moved them back in, and they still wouldn't go into the house when coming home from off the lot. So unless anybody has any other ideas, it appears that I'm stuck with either removing the part of the fence in front of the house and putting up with paparazzi coming right up to the house, or putting up with my sims not going into the house when they come home. I don't like either option.
I guess I do have one other option, which would be to ban paparazzi from this town with the NRaas Register mod. I think I like that option the best. They live in Hidden Springs, which seems to be the capitol of their nation, since the royals live there, so I thought there really should be paparazzi in the town for realism. I don't mind them following my sims around town, which they don't do often anyway, as the parents in my household are both only one star celebrities, and not likely to ever progress beyond that. I don't even mind when they hang out outside the fence. But I can't stand having them close to the house.
