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For sale houses/abandoned houses

LandOLincoln

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2018
Messages
462
Location
Rockford
Has anyone ever tried to get permission from realtor company, or the bank to detect on for sale houses? There are several homes in my area, unnocupied for sale or otherwise bank owned property that were built early 1900s. Whenever i do get around to asking and they say no, i had thought to offer to mow the lawn once, for a chance to detect it. There is also one abandoned property I have in mind, it just so happend to be a house the infamous Al Capone used to hangout at and run moonshine to the nearby railroad. Reason i know this is I did some work in the house well over a decade ago when someone was trying to save the place, but it was a dump and didnt make it, im sure it is now long forgotten in the minds of others.
 
Has anyone ever tried to get permission from realtor company, or the bank to detect on for sale houses? There are several homes in my area, unnocupied for sale or otherwise bank owned property that were built early 1900s. Whenever i do get around to asking and they say no, i had thought to offer to mow the lawn once, for a chance to detect it. There is also one abandoned property I have in mind, it just so happend to be a house the infamous Al Capone used to hangout at and run moonshine to the nearby railroad. Reason i know this is I did some work in the house well over a decade ago when someone was trying to save the place, but it was a dump and didnt make it, im sure it is now long forgotten in the minds of others.

That Capone house would be awesome to hunt. Have you found out who owns it yet?

How close is it to the road, etc?
 
Has anyone ever tried to get permission from realtor company, or the bank to detect on for sale houses? There are several homes in my area, unnocupied for sale or otherwise bank owned property that were built early 1900s. Whenever i do get around to asking and they say no, i had thought to offer to mow the lawn once, for a chance to detect it. There is also one abandoned property I have in mind, it just so happend to be a house the infamous Al Capone used to hangout at and run moonshine to the nearby railroad. Reason i know this is I did some work in the house well over a decade ago when someone was trying to save the place, but it was a dump and didnt make it, im sure it is now long forgotten in the minds of others.



I just posted the same question! I’ll be watching closely


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I wish I could help with improving the odds of a 'yes' from those name-less face-less banks. But as you can probably surmise, they'll usually answer "no". Ie.: why should they be bothered ?

But as an aside: We had in various parts of CA, during the 2006-ish to 2009-ish: A housing mortgage meltdown. Where housing prices got to the point (artificially inflated by house-flippers, over-eager lenders, etc...) that the average common working man could no longer afford a home. Or that his monthly payments were now so high, that his housing was more than half of his income !

All of the sudden, homes sales slowed finally. Prices started dropping. And then, surprise surprise: People became "backwards" on their mortgagges, if they'd been un-lucky enough to have purchased in the 4 or 5 yrs. leading up to this. People owed more than their houses were worth !

So a lot of people simply "walked away" and let the bank repossess them. Some cities in CA got hit particularly hard. And some neighborhoods had blocks of houses where ........ every block .. you'd see another 2 or 3 boarded up homes ! It took a year or two for the bank to sort things out, sell them, etc... (as the wheels of finances and legal issues turn slowly).

During that year or two, I knew some guys who made sport of simply going yard to yard in older neighborhoods, d/t these repo's were easy to spot. Ie.: yards un-mowed, windows boarded up, etc....

Technically I suppose they were supposed to have gotten the banks permission. Typically, by this time, the mortgages were "bundled" and now in the portfolio of out-of-state entities, etc.... Not likely a local bank. Was that right of them ? Technically, no. But no one ever gave them any problems.
 
Not sure who owns it now. I need to drive by the place, but i dont recall there being any front yard, its kind of a building that sits right on a steap street and directly in the back it slopes down to a railroad. There is a supposed tunnel from the basement down and out to the rail tracks but they said it was sealed off or filled in long ago.

I just looked on google earth, there is a back yard and railroad tracks behind that. And across the street in front of the house there are another set of tracks. This looks promising. Its in a rundown area so nobody here is spending money on their yards.
 
I actually had good luck gaining permission at a old Victorian house that was up for sale in my town last year. When I drove past it, I noticed that there was a city notice posted on each of the entry doors saying that an inspector determined the house to be either vacant or abandoned - yet there was a fresh "for sale" sign from a local realtor standing in the front yard. I figured if a local realtor was handling the sale, it probably wasn't abandoned. Since the realtor's office was literally right up the road, it was easy enough to pop in and ask about it.

Being a mid-western small town probably makes a huge difference, but the realtor couldn't have been friendlier. I told her I had noticed the fantastic Victorian down the road that was for sale and I was hoping to gain permission from the proper owner to try metal detecting in the yard. Turns out an elderly couple did still own the house, but they no longer lived in it and couldn't keep up with it anymore. She asked me a few questions and took my card, saying she would call the sellers and see if they would allow it. Well, we've all heard that before - I was polite, courteous, and chatted for a little while before leaving, but I assumed I'd never hear back from her again. No worries, it's part of the hobby, right?

Well, imagine my surprise and delight when my phone rang not even 10 minutes down the road. It was the realtor - she had already spoken to the owners, and they were perfectly fine with me detecting the property! She advised me that I had to be quick, though - the house had an offer on it with closing expected in about a week, so I had to get in before the house changed hands and the permission expired. I turned the car right around and spent the rest of the afternoon at the house, and part of the next day, too!

The moral of the story is, don't be afraid to contact your local realtors about specific homes they have in their inventory that you're interested in detecting - even if you don't get a "yes" right away, they are great contacts to have on your side! Plus, they can be great sources of information on local history as well, because they'll often know the backstory for the properties that they're selling.
 

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That Capone house would be awesome to hunt. Have you found out who owns it yet?

How close is it to the road, etc?

Its listed as owned by the winnebago county trustee. I know the area well and im sure i could just metal detect there with no problems. Im waiting for my nox 600 to show up later this week.
 
Thats helpful, Airmet. Thank you. I'm always nervous hunting or even just exploring someplace without permission. If I did hunt, it would be hard to relax. I'm going to do just what you did and hope for the best.
 
There is a house less than a mile from mine that John Dillanger used as a safe house when he was hiding out from the law. They did actually arrest him there at one point. Never tried asking permission but then again there really in not much of a yard. I could probably grid and complete it in 15 minutes it's small with adjacent houses offering not much more then a walking path between them.

Guess you could always buy the houses, detect the yards until your hearts content, hire a cheap crew to fix it up some and try and to flip it. That may be going a little overboard though. :D
 
This property has been rezoned as commercial, since it was last a restaurant. At the very least this place was a restaurant with customers coming and going, possibly dropping things. Im going to check it out maybe this weekend. I really want to hunt the 2 railroad tracks in front of and behind the house. I wouldnt need any permission for those. The railroad station nearby is currently unused, lots of homeless folks around that area.
 
I drove by the capone house and it has been condemned. The backyard is so overgrown im not even sure you could swing a detector. I will be keeping an eye on this place, once they tear the house down, it may be better for detecting. I will post something if i decide to give it a try. There are also a few parks on this side of town. One is tinker park, next to tinker swiss cottage which is a house built about 1865.
 
I'm always nervous hunting or even just exploring someplace without permission.
After you just up and do it a time or two, You will conquer your fears...! You will discover Nobody gives one diddly damn about us, which is good!...Its very liberating and not as bold or brave as you may first think...Once you understand this, the World is your Oyster! Time and Treasure waits for Nobody!:laughing:
 
After you just up and do it a time or two, You will conquer your fears...! You will discover Nobody gives one diddly damn about us, which is good!...Its very liberating and not as bold or brave as you may first think...Once you understand this, the World is your Oyster! Time and Treasure waits for Nobody!:laughing:

Once again: You should consider changing careers to writing books. You would outsell stephen king, earnest hemingway, and John Steinbeck combined. Trouble is: No one buys books anymore. They just look up what they want to read, on-line, for free. Doh!
 
After you just up and do it a time or two, You will conquer your fears...! You will discover Nobody gives one diddly damn about us, which is good!...Its very liberating and not as bold or brave as you may first think...Once you understand this, the World is your Oyster! Time and Treasure waits for Nobody!:laughing:

Well said, Mud
 
I have had great luck with realtors. Especially on run down or empty lots. However make SURE you remember the name of who you speak to.

I had an over zealous cop try to tell me my permission was not good enough. I really ticked him off with my knowledge.
 
....I had an over zealous cop try to tell me my permission was not good enough. ....

I am as brazen and ballsy as they come (to a fault). But I could never extend that to disputing semantics, in-the-field , with cops like your fabled stories tell.

I make sure I don't have run-in's in the first place. But if I do, then sure, I'll put up a meek friendly chit-chat to explain my harmlessness. But if they persist, then I give lip service, and move on.

To hold ground and defy like you have, is the stuff of guys more brazen, calloused, and ballsy than even me ! haha
 
I am as brazen and ballsy as they come (to a fault). But I could never extend that to disputing semantics, in-the-field , with cops like your fabled stories tell.

I make sure I don't have run-in's in the first place. But if I do, then sure, I'll put up a meek friendly chit-chat to explain my harmlessness. But if they persist, then I give lip service, and move on.

To hold ground and defy like you have, is the stuff of guys more brazen, calloused, and ballsy than even me ! haha

With an owner out of state and the next door neighbor calling the police saying the land belonged to them. I politely told the officer that the owner did not call the police department and I had permission to be on the land.

The officer asked from whom and I told him Jeff, the realtor. HE decided that was not good enough on his own and that is when the problem started.

In Michigan the law is CLEAR. The OWNER has to tell you that you are trespassing. You have to refuse to move on and ONLY THEN can you be given a citation for trespassing.

Since no owner was involved the officer had absolutely NO RIGHT to try to intimidate me off the property. The realtor is the owners agent. They have a contract to allow anybody on the property. I was just going across it to get to the lake.

The realtor had my name and my number and promised to call me if there were any problems with the owner.

So no badge carrying gun toting bully was going to threaten me when I was within the law.
 
With an owner out of state and the next door neighbor calling the police saying the land belonged to them. I politely told the officer that the owner did not call the police department and I had permission to be on the land.

The officer asked from whom and I told him Jeff, the realtor. HE decided that was not good enough on his own and that is when the problem started.

In Michigan the law is CLEAR. The OWNER has to tell you that you are trespassing. You have to refuse to move on and ONLY THEN can you be given a citation for trespassing.

Since no owner was involved the officer had absolutely NO RIGHT to try to intimidate me off the property. The realtor is the owners agent. They have a contract to allow anybody on the property. I was just going across it to get to the lake.

The realtor had my name and my number and promised to call me if there were any problems with the owner.

So no badge carrying gun toting bully was going to threaten me when I was within the law.

Your stories never cease to amaze me.

While everything you're saying was probably technically true, I could envision this happening: If the realtor was called by the police , and they say "Did you give this scuba-fellow permission to be on your land?", then this would merely make the realtor regret passing out permission . Ie.: that it "created hassles". No realtor would want to be in the middle of this having to be sorted out. And would simply cause them to take the easy route next time, and just say "no".
 
Your stories never cease to amaze me.

While everything you're saying was probably technically true, I could envision this happening: If the realtor was called by the police , and they say "Did you give this scuba-fellow permission to be on your land?", then this would merely make the realtor regret passing out permission . Ie.: that it "created hassles". No realtor would want to be in the middle of this having to be sorted out. And would simply cause them to take the easy route next time, and just say "no".

Even if that were the case, the officer had absolutely NO RIGHT to try and intimidate me.

It is like people fretting that if I (one person) stick up for my rights, the government will change the law to make sure i can't next time.

NO government is going to vote on changing the law because of ONE person.

THAT was the argument in the Detroit River. The LAW clearly states I am LEGAL to be in it. So I try to explain that to BULL HEADED officers and refuse to leave. So folks think that with me rocking the boat the Detroit City Council is going to revise a law?

Laws are written to PROTECT our rights. The officers have absolutely NO RIGHT to infringe on them. END OF STORY.

IF the officer would have called the realtor, he could or could not decide it was a hassle to give me permission. I can only govern myself. I can't look into a crystal ball and see what may or may not happen in the future.

I will say it again. IF I am within the law, I don't care how big of badge or gun you have. you have a bull by the horns if you decide to mess with me. Maybe if more folks would stick up for themselves there would be less officers that think they can intimidate every person they deal with.

Anybody in ANY instance can play the what if game. Anything you do in life can have negative consequences.

Not on single officer has ever felt they had to disarm me of my two dive knives even though some have been very angry. I am polite and firm. I have never been cuffed and stuffed.
 
On that note. I appreciate the difficult job our officers have to do, i sure as hell would never want that job. Not sure whats worse having to deal with someone committing a criminal act or an over zealous citizen who is always right. I dont appreciate being intimidated, but it is a tactic they are taught, and it is quite effective in many circumstances. They know exactly what they are doing when they do it, and they are judging your reaction in order to gain information to determine the best course of action. Its not personal, just a tactic to be aware of, they are just doing there job the way they are taught to do it. Sometimes I like to think of things this way when dealing with other people, i have 2 eyes that allow me to see the world, and that is like looking threw a window. Now what i see is not what others see, so when i look out, it is like only looking threw one pane of the window, and you cannot see the whole picture. When i stop to talk with another person with an open mind(i have to be open minded, not them), and the are so nice as to share with me there perspective of the window they see out of. The window i look out of becomes a little bigger, and i gain a better perspective of the big picture. And this has helped me more than you will ever know to make my life easier, better, and to be the person that i want to be, or how i see myself.
 
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