The Offer

[Frankn]

Well, my partner and myself have found the site of a cache. I sent an offer to the land owner of 1/3 for my partner,1/3 for me and 1/3 for the land owner. His reply was he would only accept a 50/50 deal. I sent an E Mail ex planing that we had spent months of research time and on the ground research time plus paid for additional info. I mentioned that if the cash had already been found we loose time effort and money on the search but he looses nothing. I also ex planed that possibly months of electronic searching may still be required. The question for this post is do you think he will accept the 1/3 cut? Frank

 

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[Woodland Detectors]

It's certainly worth making an offer Frankn. I'll bet he goes for it
I hope you find it!

 

[Frankn]

I did make the offer. I will let you guys know his reply. Frank

 

[U.K. Brian]

I would take the 50/50 split. His land and whats on it belongs to him. Stick out for to high a share and he may buy a detector himself or bring in one experienced person to search for him.

 

[relichunters]

Whats to say there isn't only two or three coins in the cache? Tell him if you find it, depending on how many coins are inside, we can split them up.

I'd hate to lose out on a possible cache, but if he says no, it's better to lose half than all of it.

 

[limegoldconvertible68]

There's no way I would accept that offer if I was the land owner. What if you had another guy in your group, would it be a split of 75/25? There are only two parties to this.......yours and the land owner......50/50. How would you feel if it was just you hunting for the cache and the landowner told you that since he's married he should get 2/3 of the find and you should get only 1/3?

 

[shivermetimbers]

the land owner wants a awful lot at 50/50
since you and your partner are doing all the hard work
who knows what could be in the cache
1/3 offer seems like reasonable offer

good luck with it

 

[bigscoop]

No...I'd say he'll probably decline the offer. It's his land, it's his cache, and he's the only one at any real risk. I think the 50/50 is, "fantastic offer for you."

 

[Frankn]

I haven't gotten a second reply yet, but here is how I look at it. My partner and myself have put in months of computer and on the ground time to locate this cache. In the last part of the search it seemed hopeless untill I contacted a "specialist" in locating people and places. I had to offer him a 10% split to locate it. he found it in 2 days complete with present owners name and address. The present owner has nothing to loose in this deal if nothing is found, but my partner and I will have lost a lot. Why should my partner and I accept 25%each and the owner collect the lions share of 50%? At 1/3 the owner stands to pick up $50,000.
The way I look at it allocated shares only go to the actual work providers and the land owner.
When I work with a partner, I agree ahead of time if we are going to pool and split finds or keep what we each find. In this case there are 3 partners, my partner , the land owner, and I. Frank

 

[sqwaby]

Get a written contract, or you might not get anything.

 

[CACHEHNTR]

Wishing you the best of luck Frank! Please keep us posted as to what happens

 

[poorhunter78]

Whatever the deal, You and your partner should still come out of it well..

Good Luck to you and your Partner Frankn..

 

[Jason in Enid]

My partner and myself have put in months of computer and on the ground time to locate this cache.

Be very careful. According to this statement you have already been tresspassing on private property in attempts to track down the cache. You might not want to include that in the negotiations.

 

[bigscoop]

You know Frankn, something you might consider doing is offering the land owner a percentage deal based on a curve. Maybe something along the lines of, "the more you recover the larger percentage, or share, for you and your partner." There's no way to know how the land owner will respond to your current offer, but if he accepts it, or any offer for that matter, then he is opening himself up to all sorts of potential problems and legal issues on down the road. There is a lot for a land owner to consider in deals like this. This, and also the fact that he already owns 100% of any cache that might be found on his land, is why I said I think a 50/50 is a fantastic deal for you and your partner. Hope it all works out for you one way or another.

By the way, what is the estimated value of the cache if it would happen to all be there? This could also influence any deals to be made as I would think it would have to be pretty sustantial for the type deal your suggesting to the land owner.

 

[Lost2Much]

UK Brian is right! As a landowner, I would kindly thank Frankn and tell him to never come back!
I will find it myself and keep the 100%. A 1/3 offer would be telling me that I'm a REAL IDIOT!!!

 

[Keppy]

If i was the land owner i would say....... Thank you for letting me know that it is on my land... And now would you please get off my land..............And that is what i think most people would say....... You did all the work research maps time spent................. But the land owner did not ask you to do that..............

 

[Frankn]

Keppy ,that would be a very bad idea for him. I have given him no clues. He has 9.5 ac and not a hint of the treasure story. I don't give out that info. on purpose. It's my ace in the hole. If he turnes down my offer and has someone else look, he will be back.
Well the way I look at it he owns 100% of nothing right now and he could own 1/3 of it all . I don't think any one else could find it for him without my notes. And those notes have only been shared with my partner. There is a big "catch 22" reason why no one else could find it on his property. Frank

 

[rockhound]

I am in a similar situation, except, the landowner doesn't know it yet. A man I worked with used to work as a teenager on a large farm to help an old man during the summer. He and his wife passed away, and only had one daughter, who lived over 300 miles away. His daughter would come in every couple of weeks and try to find the treasure her father had buried. She had hired several people with detectors to locate it for a fee, but they were not able to find it. One day while I was in the neighborhood, I stopped long enough to survey the land and do a little investigation. This was not and still is not posted property. She had since sold the property to a realitor and he has started building 4 homes on the property. I haven't approached him yet, and don't know if I will or not. The treasure is a 10 gallon ceramic churn full of silver dollars. Her father farmed for a living, but also worked for a company and was paid in silver dollars. Her never spent any of the silver dollars and also when he sold cattle, tobacco or hay, he also got silver dollars. His daughter told my friend that she remembered him wheelbarrowing the hoard out one night and never returned with it. I am relatively sure I know where it is buried. or in a real close proximity. Also I am relatively sure if I offered a split with the realitor and the daughter found out, we could both lose it in a court battle. I have been sitting on this for about five years now, and the daughter is getting way up there in years, so I may hold off for a while longer. I have offered others a 50/50 split and they have taken the deal. Still, I know of others that were offered the deal and were told to leave and not be caught there again. Each person you deal with can have a different perspective on such a sudden probability of wealth. Good Luck with yours, rockhound

 

[Keppy]

Keppy ,that would be a very bad idea for him. I have given him no clues. He has 9.5 ac and not a hint of the treasure story. I don't give out that info. on purpose. It's my ace in the hole. If he turnes down my offer and has someone else look, he will be back.
Well the way I look at it he owns 100% of nothing right now and he could own 1/3 of it all . I don't think any one else could find it for him without my notes. And those notes have only been shared with my partner. There is a big "catch 22" reason why no one else could find it on his property. Frank

Frankn........ I hope that ace you have works out for you good luck..........

 

[N.J.THer]

Keppy ,that would be a very bad idea for him. I have given him no clues. He has 9.5 ac and not a hint of the treasure story. I don't give out that info. on purpose. It's my ace in the hole. If he turnes down my offer and has someone else look, he will be back.
Well the way I look at it he owns 100% of nothing right now and he could own 1/3 of it all . I don't think any one else could find it for him without my notes. And those notes have only been shared with my partner. There is a big "catch 22" reason why no one else could find it on his property. Frank

Another way of looking at it is that he currently has no vested interest so if he feels that the 1/3 split is unfair to him and does not want to be taken advantage, even if this is untrue, he may just say no. If he turns you down then you and your partner have time and money invested with a zero percent return. According to your numbers, if you take the 50/50 it will give you and your partner $75,000 minus the 10% to the person you hired to help and hopefully it was 10% of your share and not the entire cache. Which now gives you $67,500...you and your partner get $33,750 each. If the 10% was for the entire cache then you each get $30,000. Still a very respectable return on your time and money.

Good luck

NJ