• Forum server maintanace Friday night.(around 7PM Centeral time)
    Website will be off line for a short while.

    You may need to log out, log back in after we're back online.

Hunting “for sale” property

ironskillet

New Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2018
Messages
17
A property near my house sits on 11 acres with an 1800s timber cabin far behind the main house for sale. I can see from property maps, that it is the same land. Going up for permission, I found that no one lives there in the main house and the property is for sale through a local real estate agency. Does anyone have experience with permissions like this?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hunt it, and if someone questions you, just tell them you're interested in the property, but checking for ghosts.

:laughing:
 
Hunt it, and if someone questions you, just tell them you're interested in the property,...

I know bird-dog is just joking around, but here's a true scenario that happened to me. My father in law was considering investing in a rental property. During one of his site-walks and previews, studying the place, he attempted to find the property marker boundaries. (This was back before the days where such things were instantly on computers and smart phones).

Since my father in law knew I was into detecting, he asked me to come help him locate the markers. He told the realtor that he was going to be going to the place, to do some further looking around, locate the markers, measure around, etc.... The realtor had no problem. After all, he's a prospective buyer.

Once I was done finding the markers, I spent another 30 min. or so poking around the yard (hey, I'm already there after all, right ? I'm legit, right ?), because the house dated to the 1940s. Found some wheaties, clad, etc... woohoo.
 
We have tried real estate agents in the past to help get permission, but they are not real helpful. Try using the GIS system and find the real owner and contact them direct. I have started making phone calls when the owner is an older person who might be alarmed to open a door for a stranger. So far I am three for three in getting permission over the phone.
 
... We have tried real estate agents in the past to help get permission, but they are not real helpful. ......

duggap, your post brings up an interesting point, in a roundabout way : If you think of it: A real estate actually doesn't have the authority to grant permission, in the first place. It's not their house. Yet md'rs won't flinch for a moment at taking the "yes" and going ahead with it. Doh


... I am three for three in getting permission over the phone. ......

You must be a smooth talker. Because the average person, when getting a phone call from a perfect stranger, will usually just treat it as a sales/soliciter call. And ... you know what all of us do to phone solicitors, right ? We hang up. So you must have a magical charm. I try to catch people out-&-about, for an in-person contact.
 
duggap, your post brings up an interesting point, in a roundabout way : If you think of it: A real estate actually doesn't have the authority to grant permission, in the first place. It's not their house. Yet md'rs won't flinch for a moment at taking the "yes" and going ahead with it. Doh
.

Real estate agents do have the authority to give permission to be on the property. It's in the contract. Looking at the house, finding markers would be something they could give permission for, treasure hunting not so much.

When my city was selling condemned properties, I called and asked if I needed an appointment to check out the properties or would it be okay to go and take measurements and stuff. They told me I could check out the properties any time. I figure my "and stuff" covers metal detecting.
 
Real estate agents do have the authority to give permission to be on the property. It's in the contract. Looking at the house, finding markers would be something they could give permission for, treasure hunting not so much.....

Well, sure. That's what I meant. Naturally : Yes, the realtor has ability to allow prospective buyers on to look. It would be interesting to see the contractual language, if it just said "view" or "look". Versus more open language that grants the realtor broader abilities.

....They told me I could check out the properties any time. I figure my "and stuff" covers metal detecting.

I like your logic :)
 
duggap, your post brings up an interesting point, in a roundabout way : If you think of it: A real estate actually doesn't have the authority to grant permission, in the first place. It's not their house. Yet md'rs won't flinch for a moment at taking the "yes" and going ahead with it. Doh




You must be a smooth talker. Because the average person, when getting a phone call from a perfect stranger, will usually just treat it as a sales/soliciter call. And ... you know what all of us do to phone solicitors, right ? We hang up. So you must have a magical charm. I try to catch people out-&-about, for an in-person contact.

We never used a real estate agent for permission, we tried to get them to tell us who the owner was. They always acted like that was against their rules. I have only ever called when the owner is a female of advanced age because they often refuse to answer the door out of fear. But in local call ID kicks in and they usually answer. Never had any good luck using letters though.
 
This just recently happened to me. I have been searching and searching for a good place to hunt where I would have a good possibility to find some older items and quite possibly my first silver. I was flipping through the local FB yardsale pages that I am on just to see what locals are selling. I came across 7 acres for sale that the same family has owned since the 40's and have never done anything with. They lived across the road from it and a subdivision was starting to approach their place so they bought all the land around them to act as a buffer. The place had a national training academy school of some sorts on it that was built in the early 30's . A lot of the walls, foundations and chimneys are still there. The owner was left the property by his parents and really has no interest in returning to this area since he has been gone since high school. He had a long Navy career and then traveled the country before finally settling in washington State. He happened to make a comment on one of the Facebook ads that the local agent put online so I asked him for permission and as expected got a no not at this time. A little disappointed but we kept talking about different areas of the country and history of the place . This has gone on for a few days and I never brought up the subject about detecting again. Today he sent me a message that the property was under contract and expected to close in a month or so but since he still owned it until then I had permission to detect until closing. On top of that i also gained an online friend . Win win. Hope to get on it next week sometime depending on weather. I'll start a thread of what I find if anything. he also told me that he was pretty sure no-one has ever had a detector on the property and you'd never know the place was there because of its remote location. So excited to finally have a good site. So don't take a no as no. Just not yet.
 
I was thinking about the whole for sale property and detecting.

HONESTLY if It was I selling.. I am not sure I would want to let someone detect there. If it was at my Current house where I have 5 acres then ya I would say go for it.

Now lets assume that I know Nothing about Metal detecting.

If it was my prior house where I just spent 5 grand fixing up the landscaping prior to putting it on the market then No I wouldn't do it. I mean come on I don't know you.. I don't know how good you are at cutting plugs..In my my mind I am thinking huge wholes all over my nicely manicured lawn.

I just can't see that I would ever say yes in that situation.
 
I was thinking about the whole for sale property and detecting.

HONESTLY if It was I selling.. I am not sure I would want to let someone detect there. If it was at my Current house where I have 5 acres then ya I would say go for it.

Now lets assume that I know Nothing about Metal detecting.

If it was my prior house where I just spent 5 grand fixing up the landscaping prior to putting it on the market then No I wouldn't do it. I mean come on I don't know you.. I don't know how good you are at cutting plugs..In my my mind I am thinking huge wholes all over my nicely manicured lawn.

I just can't see that I would ever say yes in that situation.

I was thinking the same thing. No touching the lawn while it is for sale.
 
Back
Top Bottom