How do you door knock?

gunwolf said:

this is something I have yet to do. I usually ask friends or people word of mouth, but I have never had the nerve to knock on a random door. I watch these posts closely and read about how some go about it... and I know someday I'll over come my fear. It is a bit hard here I live in a country setting and people get a bit uptight when strangers pull into the drive a lot of the very old early 1800's home around here have no soliciting no trespassing signs... even saw one on an old foundation down the road!

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If it has either of those signs on the property I don't knock it. Pulling in a driveway depends on how comfortable I feel about the situation and location but mostly avoid that too. A partner makes it easier also, one drives and pulls over and hits the flashers while the other knocks. If one of us is on a roll that guy goes until he gets a no and then the other guy is up. jwp1964 and I were out knocking one day and while he was walking up to knock a house I noticed the one right next door looked good too, so I jumped out and knocked it while he was knocking the other! Doubled our chances, and we got both! Lol.

Spm673 (The Jersey Digger) said:

So funny...Just as I am reading this I get a knock on my door with a guy from Tru Green. Told him I take care of my own lawn...Wow that was weird...

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HOLY CR*P, that was you????? You could have at least listened to what I was selling. LOL

The ones that really get my dander up are the out of state driveway salesmen. I have a relatively long driveway (couple hundred feet) with a semi circle turn around. Three times in the last two years a different decked out and spotlessly clean dually pick up truck with out of state tags has pulled half way up my driveway and started honking an obnoxiously loud horn. Trying to call me out to buy a new driveway. When asked why the horn instead of knocking they all replied that they were afraid I had a dog. If you are too scared to get out of your truck just get on out of here.

A couple of years ago, when I was going through chemo and radiation for throat cancer I was often home alone during the day. I had people selling magazine subscriptions or giving away free alarm systems banging on the door mercilessly because they "could tell someone was home". I asked my wife to put a "Quarantined" sign on the door to see if they would leave me alone then, but she never did. LOL

Just like any other group of people, the bad ones can give them all a bad name. Maybe I'm too hard on them, but it was their counterparts that made me this way.



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If I see someone outside, bonus, but if I really want to detect somewhere I will cold knock. I am a smallish woman, so I usually take a buddy with me just as protection - my hubby or another detectorist.

I dress nicely and act polite- around here that also means wearing a nice cross pendant, and never knocking on a Sunday.

Here is what I normally say: "Hello. My name is Suzi Boyer and I am a neighbor (give address or relative area where you live). I have a hobby of local history and metal detecting. I'd like to know if I can detect your yard?"
If they are receptive, and start chatting with me (happens a lot), I usually ask - "What can you tell me about the history of this property and any other local history that you know about?" I have met wonderful people and learned quite a bit in this manner. Recently I have started bringing copies of the historic society maps with me, as some of the property owners have asked to see the old maps, and they are grateful when I give them a copy showing their property on the old atlases.

I get very few No's. There are a lot of large, old properties around here, so I don't need to get a lot of permissions to be set for a year or so.
Sometimes I also ask to take pictures of the properties- many very attractive houses-and the owners are flattered.

Also, I bring back baked goods (usually a pie and some cookies) as a Thank You to those who let me detect, and they get on my Christmas card and Christmas cookie list. Keeping in touch keeps reminds them that you are looking for info and properties to detect. I've gotten phone calls with leads after leaving a card and a tin of cookies on a doorstep, along with my business card.