[Surveyorwill]

Does anyone else have a problem with people thinking that your driveway will get them to the local real-estate listings?

We have a modest five acre parcel, heavily wooded with three seasonal drainages crosscutting the length. The unpaved private road splits about 200’ east of our northeast property corner at the top of one of the draws. If you go straight, there is a paved driveway up the next hill to a new house, and the road continues to the left past the driveway but is rather small and obscure. To the left at the split is the continuation of the road circling back on itself; this is the way to our house. As you turn left the road drops quickly into the draw, and is washed out with large ruts cutting across it, if you didn’t know where to drive you would bottom out your car the ruts are so deep. Our driveway turns left off this portion of the road right at our northeast property corner; the road itself is becoming overgrown from lack of use past our driveway. As you start up our driveway we have a NO TRESPASSING sign and our address posted in plain sight on a tree right next to the driveway.

Over the last year, two parcels have been up for sale on our road, so we get people driving right up our posted driveway all the time looking for these parcels. Even after it becomes evident that the road is coming to our house, they keep driving, sometimes just around the house and back out, most the time they decide we must be the people to ask for directions. The thing is, neither one of the parcels have sold the first one they took off the market after almost a year the other has been on for over six months.

DW is making a new sign “PRIVATE DRIVE, NO ACCESS/EXIT”, but we don’t like signs. Shouldn’t people have sense, and courtesy without needing to be told? Yesterday was the latest, they drove up late in the afternoon, the dogs did their job and let me know someone was coming, so I was standing at the corner of the deck as they drove up. The guy said hi and got out came up and asked where the property for sale was. Now I always try to be polite, but yesterday I was tired so I was probably a little short with the guy, cause as he was leaving he was trying very hard to apologize. I don’t like being like that but the more it happens the more annoyed I get, so the next guy might not see the real me at all.

Does anyone else have a problem like this? Any suggestions as to what to do, short of putting up a gate, DW has a back problem, don’t want her to have to be opening closing the gate all the time.

Thanks for your input.

 

[ajoys]

Maybe get in touch with the property owner or agent and have them make it obvious where the property for sale is.

 

[Jena]

I would contact the real estate agent and tell them about the problem. Perhaps they can put up sign with an arrow pointing on up the road or something.

Jena

 

[Guest]

Unfortunately, what you're getting also are people out just to drive around. Sometimes too, people don't think "no tresspassing" applies to them....

What about an automatic gate? Yes, they cost some money, but that would stop people from getting all the way up to your house.

 

[Shrek]

How about a sign that reads " Golden Years Nudist Colony for Sun Worshiping Geriactrics. Membership restricted to seniors over 80" at the head of the driveway

 

[deberosa]

I have the same problem only no real estate to confuse people. I think they are just plain nosy. I am only on 4.5 acres and my paved drive winds through the wooded portion. I ordered private drive signs and posted no tresspassing signs. It's discouraging to hear that might not work. This is my first year in this house.

 

[Christiaan]

Part of the problem is your no trespassing sign. Driving up to someone's house to ask for directions, etc., is not trespassing. You need to put up a keep out sign. Even then, without a gate, many people would not be stopped. I recommend a sign reading: Private Property Keep Out Survivors Will Be Prosecuted

 

[mightybooboo]

Part of the problem is your no trespassing sign. Driving up to someone's house to ask for directions, etc., is not trespassing. You need to put up a keep out sign. Even then, without a gate, many people would not be stopped. I recommend a sign reading: Private Property Keep Out Survivors Will Be Prosecuted

a gate would work,it would be an inconvenience,but effective.
BooBoo

 

[Alice In TX/MO]

You ask...Shouldn’t people have sense, and courtesy without needing to be told?

Answer...Reality says no. Some people aren't courteous. Some people don't have sense. The ones who do haven't come up your driveway. You have a sense filter on your road, and you are getting the ones who weren't filtered out.

Also...another think to think about... being lost doesn't equal being dis-courteous. Each person who comes up your drive looking for help has no idea he may be the tenth person that day. His reality is not yours.

 

[Mike in Ohio]

People don't care. You might try placing (or have the realtors place) a sign with an arrow pointing people towards the property for sale. You could also place some signs by the entrance to your drive with a warning that it is a blasting zone. Or you could take a leaf from the movie Secondhand Lions and use the vehicles for target practice.

We have no tresspassing signs that specify No hunting, fishing or tresspassing for any other purpose. We have them posted much more frequently than the law requires. You can't get on our property without seeing them. We also have the drive blocked (I'm still breaking through a rock shelf where I want to put the gate post) with an 8 inch diameter timber on cinder blocks.

We still get people wandering on to our property. The "excuses" range from "we just wanted to pick some fruit, flowers whatever "(without permission) to "we wanted to look at your barns". The barns are 600 feet from where the driveway is blocked. Then there are the folks who think they need no excuse.... "It's a free country". The worst are poachers (that's what I call people who are hunting our property without permission).

I don't care how apologetic someone is.....tresspassing is tresspassing. The only exception in my mind is an emergency that threatens life or livestock.

Sorry for the rant but this is a sore point for me.

Mike

 

[Guest]

Surveyorwill

A gate is probably the only stop all car solution.

Shrek

“How about a sign that reads " Golden Years Nudist Colony for Sun Worshiping Geriatrics. Membership restricted to seniors over 80" at the head of the driveway”

Funny, but what happens when you have a few 82 year old nudists walking through your pasture? :S

Mike in Ohio

"we just wanted to pick some fruit, flowers whatever "

That is called stealing. Tell them my family eats those fruit you are stealing. Press charges.

“The worst are poachers”

They are trespassing on your property with a weapon! You can shoot them and say you felt your life was in danger as long as you have signs up.

As for people climbing fencing, you may want to plant a hedge of Barberry (Berberis vulgaris). It will eventually grow to a 9-foot tall thicket hedge covered with very nasty thorns. While humans know how to get around “human engineered” barbed wire, the randomness of nature will leave them with some nasty punctures and slices. The berries are also good for wildlife.

 

[Windy in Kansas]

I see this differently. I certainly agree that the realty agency needs to have arrow signs at each turn/twist in the roadway to keep people on track.

On the other hand, what a great way to see your potential neighbors. Those that are polite and apologetic I would be nice to, putting your best foot forward to attract them for making a purchase. Those you would not want for neighbors need not be treated as nicely.

I remember reading something like this one time. A fellow walks up to an old fellow and states that he has rented such and such a place, what are the neighbors like?

The old fellow senses the hostility and asks what kind of neighbors did the fellow have where he last lived?

He was told they were horrible, etc.

The old fellow replied, that is the same kind you will have here.

Some real food for thought there. Like the saying goes, to have a neighbor, be one.

 

[Guest]

Rose and Windy both make good points. Someone checking out the neighborhood and neighbors, just as you might walk up to someone's house to see if you like them and ask pertinent questions about local neighborhood issues is legitimate "business", and no court would protect you if your dogs injured them, for example, regardless of what signs you had up. Same with being lost, or broken down, and maybe yours is the only place with the lights on. I don't expect people to let total strangers in (I wouldn't), but I would of course call AAA for them if they give a card # to me. Would you not want someone to do the same if you were broken down? Cell phones don't work everywhere, and not everyone has them anyway.


That's why I suggest an automatic gate with perhaps an intercom, or at any rate, something to let you know that people are around. At least it keeps most people (except serious criminals) at arm's length.

 

[Ken Scharabok]

I have seen drive-through electrified gates. Bascially they are long thin poles with a spring hinge at the end. Perhaps they might help even if no juice in them.

Ken S. in WC TN

 

[Surveyorwill]

Maybe get in touch with the property owner or agent and have them make it obvious where the property for sale is.

I would contact the real estate agent and tell them about the problem. Perhaps they can put up sign with an arrow pointing on up the road or something.

Jena.

Great ideas, only problem with that is, the real estate agent has called us to find out where the property is too. :haha: Seems that the landowner is out of town and elderly so he has not been able to show her where the property is, so there are no signs at all. Everyone that I have talked to looking for the property has pulled out a computer printout (isn’t the internet great ) they haven’t even talked to the agent yet.

Most everyone that has stopped has been very polite, but even when I am polite I think I still scare them off when I explain that the property the are looking for is 160 feet wide and a quarter of a mile long, not very usable.

I know that fencing and a gate is the most effective means but my feeling is that fences are to keep my animals/livestock in; I hate needing fences to keep people out. My mom & dad have an acre that they’ve been on for nearly fifty years, the only fences were around the garden. A few years ago the place next door sold the new owner had a fence built, and then when he came out to inspect it he tried to walk down my dad’s side because the brush was too thick on his side. He was the one wanting the fence to keep my parents off his place but it was ok for him to come on theirs?

Thanks for all your suggestions.

 

[Guest]

"Everyone that I have talked to looking for the property has pulled out a computer printout (isn’t the internet great ) they haven’t even talked to the agent yet."


Agents don't want to drive buyers around at all in most places anymore. About all they do is meet you at the place if you want to actually go in. Also, even if a property is listed with someone, people will often go in with their own agent. And, no point in talking to an agent if you go to a place that sounds good in the ad only to have it be a dump when you drive up....

If that agent was too lazy to drive out, they are doing the owner a disservice--they should be checking that property a minimum of once a week to see if anyone has visited and left their card if there's a lockbox, or just to see if there have been any break-ins--which of course would affect the saleability. Put him/her on your list of people you don't want to work with, should you ever choose to sell your place.

This is one of those things that is part of rural life, and hopefully it will end when the property changes hands, but if your new neighbors are the party type, you'll have more people "getting lost", either legitimately or not.....

 

[Ardie/WI]

How about a sign that says "A crabby woman with PMS and a big gun lives here!"

 

[Jim S.]

May father-in-law had a half-mile long drive folks always thought was a county road. He got some letters and put "Private Drive" on a 55-gallon drum and kept it at the end of his drive. If trouble got really bad, he rolled the drum in the middle of his drive entry a few days. Easy to roll it aside to get in or out off the highway, then roll it back.

You could also buy a length of chain and two posts, and padlock the chain across the drive with a NO TRESPASSING sign hung from it.

 

[sweetbabyjane]

160 feet wide and 1/4 mile long? Maybe you could just buy the property.

Something to consider,
SBJ

 

[mightybooboo]

Beware of the chain between 2 posts.A friend of mine driving a convertable Mustang was lost at night and hit one(a Cable).Never saw it.Mashed in her head and she lost an eye.Property owner lost a huge lawsuit.Terrible situation,2 folks with a shared tragedy.Gate might be safer.
BooBoo