Metal detecting - part time business? Thoughts?

[JAG]

I'm new to metal detecting, been only doing it a few months now and having a great time. A friend of mine is a real estate agent that sells mostly old homes and large estates and farms. He mentioned to me that one of his clients told him she wished she could find her late husbands wedding band he lost a few years back in the garden before the house sells. Now the garden is pretty big :-) I told him I would come out and search, within a couple of hours I found it and some junk :-) The homeowner insisted on paying me $50 for doing this for her and wished she could have found someone earlier to do it but had no idea where to look. She also gave me permission to search the rest of her property and she is not interested in old coins etc. She also gave me permission to search old farm land outside of the city that has been in her family for many moons. She had a hand drawn property map her husband had made showing trails, and an old wagon path. That land should take me the next two years to search?

My friend the realtor said he thinks it's a good idea to offer metal detecting as a service, target realtors, hotels (for guests) etc. What do you guys think of this? Is anyone doing it? I found one guy in Canada and another in Hawaii doing beaches. How would you charge? Treat it like a service call to fix the fridge type thing?

Thoughts.

Happy Holidays

Thanks
Jerry

 

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[ZumbroKid]

You should get some replies on this topic. I will have to check back after work to see how it is going. Then a can add a few things from my own experiences.

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Seems to me , if you are going to set it up as a business, then you need to treat it like one.
1099 contractor .
You would need to set a hourly fee to be paid, even if you dont find what they want you to.
If it was a lost item, then you need a good hourly wage for your time. If its a lost stash,then you could have a hourly ,plus finders fee or percentage of what the value was.

I have been called to find property surveyor markers from people just needing that service....so there would be alot of possibilities out there for a business........

 

[ramjet2187]

Yeah, and if I could only quit my other job................

I guy can dream, can't he?

Merry Christmas to all

Roger

 

[ZumbroKid]

actually, i figure i make about 1/10 of the income of my regular job, just off detecting finds that i sell. I've done this each of the last 3 years.

 

[hollowpointred]

i had a contractor offer to pay me to find a drainage grate his knucklehead laborers had buried with fill dirt in some ladies yard.........i actually did it for free.........i figured having a new spot to hunt was payment enough. guess im not much of a business man huh?!

 

[jeff of pa]

I feel the same way Hollow does.

? I love Detecting, It's not a Job, It's a Pass-Time to me.

IF I started Charging, I'd not only feel like, It's a Job,

I'd also Miss the Leads, & Respect I get, From Returning Items
for FREE.
? Even Local Law Enforcement, Once they realise your not out there making a buck
off people, look at you differently when they drive by, or you ask them for info.

? & for me selling unreturnable finds is enough spare change.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? I MUST ADMIT
? ? ? ? I? thought about it, but, Then I realised
? ? ? ?Spending an Hour digging only can tabs is a Pain,
? ? ? But part of the hobby.
? ? ? ? IF I H A D to get up in the morning to Dig can tabs for an hour,
? ? ? ?I think I'd sleep in? :P

 

[ZumbroKid]

jeff is right about keeping it fun. I just sell my stuff cause i find lots of stuff worth money. I never sold anything modern. If it is brass with writng on it, someone wants it.

 

[JAG]

I went out to the ladies house not expecting to get paid, just the fact that I can detect and possibly help her find her husbands ring was enough for me and I had lots of spare time on my hands. Also, knowing the house was old I was going to ask permission to detect after I found the ring. She was very pushy when it came to taking the $50, she insisted she pay for the service. I wish some of my regular clients (I own a small business) would pay their bills as vigorously as she pushed $50 at me. The $50 went to a good cause, a new predator shovel :-)

I'm detecting my second old home for the realtor on Friday, again, not asking for $$. But if someone wanted to start a part-time job doing it I see no problem with it at all... after all it's a service. Very much like the appliance guy I hired earlier this week to fix my fridge. $55 to come out on a service call, $75 if he found the problem.. plus parts. I don't really see the difference, a service is a service.

Jerry

 

[DigEmAll]

Take the small "Can you find the waterline?" types of jobs for free with the condition that you get to keep what you find there and you can hunt there for the next week. Take the big jobs... say over an acre.... for free and you keep what you find and hunt there for a month.

 

[Visionquest]

IMO Jeff is right on this one. It would not be unethical to do it as a job and may even be viable. In the past I have taken a few of my hobbies and turned them into businesses and quickly they lost any entertainment value they ever had. Even after getting out of those businesses, I don't enjoy the activities as hobbies any longer. If you really enjoy treasure hunting, I wouldn't involve customers into it, that is what takes the fun out of it. If you have customers, you in a way have bosses.

-Mike

 

[Dallas]

One way to look at is if they were paying you to do it you would feel obligated to produce. You would just about have to guarantee results or no payment. If I paid someone money to come find a ring and they did not find it I would feel they shouldn't be paid. That would certinally take all the fun out of it. I told my son I could find his property corner with my detector and I could not find it. I felt real bad about that. Turned out he had me look in the wrong place. Like any job I can see where there would be pluses and minuses. You might be better of just not charging and telling them if you found the object you would accept whatever they thought was fair.

 

[jbow]

Take the small "Can you find the waterline?" types of jobs for free with the condition that you get to keep what you find there and you can hunt there for the next week.? Take the big jobs... say over an acre.... for free and you keep what you find and hunt there for a month.

There you go!!! That's the way to do it!

You'll then have some good sites to hunt and you can maybe find some change and some things to sell on ebay. That beats charging for the service. Then you will get word of mouth advertising about this guy who will help you for FREE!!! OR you could charge a small fee and still get the permission to hunt the land...

You should at least get some business cards printed. Someone once said, not me, that this kind of thing should just be a cash thing with no paperwork etc... of course I would never suggest such a thing...

J

 

[stoney56]

Take the small "Can you find the waterline?" types of jobs for free with the condition that you get to keep what you find there and you can hunt there for the next week.? Take the big jobs... say over an acre.... for free and you keep what you find and hunt there for a month.

Or you can ask for property permissions instead of pocket money, maybe they have friends and family that they can talk into letting you hunt thier property as well.

 

[rjnail]

when you turn a hobby into work , the fun is gone, what you going to take up then for fun? be thats me. i would love to make a living at hunting, but i would starve,

 

[Michigan Badger]

I've commented on this before and you're on the right track.

Become known as the "Find it guy (gal)."

You don't want to be known as a "treasure hunter." That sounds selfish to the non-THing world.

Think HELPING not TAKING. If you do this you'll do lots of taking

 

[ZumbroKid]

Part time business means extra money to me. Even if it is depositing in the bank or spending the clad. This to me qualifies. Then there are the better selling items. Had three cents pay one months rent this year.

 

[ghost surf]

There is a man I know who owns "Ground View Metal detecting", ?Kevin is his name in Spencer,WI. He sells Whites and he does some detecting for the police every so often and detects as a part time job.m He is very nice and a respectable person. I am thinking? of buying one from him.I myself have done some?small work searches for people and made a few bucks here and there.Small work like checking trees stumps for nails for trees needing cutting ..made ten dollars once from a neighbor doing that.I have searched for ground lot corner posts and have done some regular searches for friends and such. I have been in most of the camp spots? in the area and have been all over central Wisconsin.I also do huge fields for picking up junk before planting,it was a 60 acre lot.I have searched two and three hundred acres for meteorites.My biggest one was over 750 acres and that one is? not even one 1/4 done. I have given notice to the police in our area of my hunting specialties for if and when they are needed and I am proud to serve them too!
I can get references if needed and will do any job no-matter what it is..Except lakes, How-ever I am looking into a new water proof machine now! Starting small and building a reputation for prospective costumers is how you need to do it and then work your way up.That is the way of building any business no-matter how big or small.Honesty always and no-bull also! A costumer wants a knowledgeable and dependable person.
PS>>>I have never asked for money, I do it for the fun and health benefits.If they offer some money I don't say no!,unless I know it was for a friend. How-ever for the Police, I will never except money!...Thats my thank you note for what they do everyday.

 

[stoney56]

. I have given notice to the police in our area of my hunting specialties for if and when they are needed and I am proud to serve them too!
PS>>>I have never asked for money, I do it for the fun and health benefits.If they offer some money I don't say no!,unless I know it was for a friend. How-ever for the Police, I will never except money!...Thats my thank you note for what they do everyday.

There's another good reason for not accepting or asking for money with a police dept., sheriff dept., or D.A.'s office. If you do and wind up in court, the defense attny could construe and ask that you be classified as an expert and if asked certain questions that you don't know, it could backfire on you. Just a point of information.

 

[Monty]

I'd have to do it for free. I just don't want to feel obligated to go somewhere and search where I don't really want to. I do a freebie every now and then sometimes successfuland sometimes not. My neighbor wanted to find a stake he had buried. I hunted and found it and he said that it couldn't be the stake as it wasn't where he remembered putting it. So, he dug down and clunk....the stake was right there where I said it was. Kinda' had me worried until he dug it up. Monty