A tip on how to get permission to hunt home sites

[DavidRandolph]

I hunt mostly old homes and properties that had homes on them at one time or another. My criteria is that they have to built before 1960. I'm often asked at the club i belong to how i go about getting permission. So here is one tip that has proven to work for me successfully. If you have a local paper that people advertise garage sales in...pull up the addresses on your local city/county property appraiser website or it may be the tax collector site. There you can see when the house was built and also how many times it was sold. In my case when i find one that was built before 1960 i will go to the garage sale and gradually inquire if they are moving and eventually bring up metal detecting and offer them to find anything they have lost if so. If you are honest with them most of the time they will let me detect especially if they are moving. Every week i check those garage sales,. Its a very easy way to get permission to hunt than just knock on a door cold turkey. Hope this will inspire you.

 

[Explorer.se]

Great advice, thank you David. I will give it a try!

 

[IDXMonster]

That's a pretty good idea there David. In fact,I do believe I'll use that one this season. I cannot believe I didn't think of that before. They're sitting there anyway,in general...relaxed,they're EXPECTING people to show up,if you buy something you just handed them money....it works on every level. HELL of an idea!!

 

[BigTony]

David, I had tried that awhile ago but no luck on two occasions but you make good points and maybe I'll try that again.

 

[DavidRandolph]

Big Tony, it doesn,t work for me all the time either. But like most things its a numbers game, The more times you ask the more times you will get a yes. And I'm not saying that this is all you need to do. Its a combination of many things. Here;s another tip, if you have a business join the local chamber of commerce and attend their meetings and get to know the folks there. Gradually you can slip in the conversation that you like to detect, and sometimes one or more of the members know someone or they themselves own a house that's old and will let you hunt. Its been my experience that if you converse with others and listen to what they like, they will listen you, and may offer you a bone. Also, invite them to go along with you. I cant tell you how many times Ive invited them to go along with me and how excited they get. This you wont believe, but i have had more success with women than with men. Last week i had a woman give me permission to hunt her yard and when i invited her to go along she took the digger tool and the pin pointer and became so excited when she was able to dig up the target. Also and this goes without saying, join the local historical society and offer them your services for free to find and verify sites that they have access to that you and i could never get....Its all about networking, you have to run it like a business. I hope this helps

 

[BigTony]

It does help to discuss different ways of getting permission.
Thanks for sharing your ideas, very cool indeed

 

[diggervance]

Hello David,

I have been using this idea for the last couple of years. I would say for me it works about 75% of the time, The other great thing about this is I find some great metal detecting apparel to wear out in the field.

D.V.