Advice on what to do with martins when house is for sale

[JHeap]

I have two six-suite martin houses and a 12 gourd rack. All but two compartments were full last year and we yielded 89 fledglings which was down a bit. We have our house on the market to sell and I have two questions:

The real estate market is moving fast in our area and I would expect that we will get an offer during this year's martin season. There is no guarantee that the people buying our home would care for our birds. Do you take your houses and gourds with you? I was thinking of just taking the gourd rack and leaving the houses.

If I plan on taking any equipment, I guess I would just not open them this year? I can't bear the idea of having the birds arrive and NOT responding. It is not so much about the expense of the equipment as it is leaving it to someone who does not maintain them.

Somewhere I read it was worse to have houses that were left open and not maintained than it was to take them down. Please let me know your thoughts. Did anyone ever write in a contract that you would come back and retrieve equipment after the season?

[~Ray~Gingerich]

When you get a serious party interested in making the purchase offer a slight reduction in price, say $500-1000 in exchange for a promise they will maintain the colony. That's what I would do if I had to move.

[Louise Chambers]

But how would you enforce a clause that the buyer maintains the colony? Several landlords have made arrangements to retrieve their housing after the nesting season is over, so that's certainly possible. Myself, I would take it down before the nesting season, or remove it after, rather than leave it in hands of someone who is not interested in maintaining it - keep house sparrows controlled, etc.

[Matt F.]

Keep in mind, a turn-key Martin colony might be just the thing, to get the new homeowners hooked into become real, and caring Martin fans.
If they seem interested (you can usually tell the ones that seem genuinely interested, as opposed to the ones that glaze over), then maybe leave your two houses, and take your gourds with you, or vice versa.
I'm pretty sure we have some forum members that got the Martin "bug", after moving into a home that already had Martins.

[Louise Chambers]

You are right, Matt - there is a forum member on currently who inherited a colony site that way. Very helpful comments about genuinely interested vs not.

[Andy H]

Are you selling the house and moving away, too far to maintain them for the remainder of this season?

If so I would check around and find a local landlord, or a trusted neighbor to maintain them for this season.

Once I worked out the details of this, I would put together a little package to give to the real estate agent that would give a brief overview of Purple Martins and why they are dependent on landlords along with some internet websites for additional information. I would then express my concern with the maintaining of the colony through the 2014 season requesting agreement to permission to do so under by responsible local landlord. I would include a resume of sort if this person has experience to back them.

I personally would find it interesting If I found a home with a colony, and would love to have someone come over and teach me about them. I believe after the season the home owner would express interest in continuing the care of the colony, but if not the person maintaining the sight could provide you with the feedback needed to make the dissension to remove the housing prior to the next season.

Just a thought. I personally would have a hard time taking down housing at a established site without first trying to interest the new owners in continuing.

[Carlton]

I am finding this very interesting as I am facing the EXACT SAME situation this Spring.

With the wonderful help of my friend Chuck I was able to have my two Delux 12 Gourd Racks relocated to open areas within a few miles of my home. I have had a colony in my backyard now since 2004. As open as DE is my martins should be able to spot the white gourds as the check out the area. Each gourd rack has people interested in martins caring for it.

I have decided to leave two martin houses, an MSS-12 and MSS-8, for the new owner and pray that he or she develops an interest in this wonderful bird. The colony will be well into nesting when my house is ready to put on the market in mid May. I usually offered 36 condos and all were filled. I feel TERRIBLE about leaving my purple friends and having them return to find only 10 condos instead of 36. Life moves on though for humans as well as birds and I will not be around forever anyway.

I have informed the park where I had a satellite site and the Country Club site about my plans and I will leave the tree swallow gourds and martin housing at those sites. I will also leave a Spar o Door at each of the three locations IF someone will only use them.

As I said, I feel terrible and am depressed about leaving my martins.

On the positive side though I am moving to my condo in South FL and for the past three years have had 12 nesting pairs here on the condo grounds in houses that I assembled and placed. People here seem to really enjoy the marins and appreciate my work. I also have two houses at Tradewinds Park near here that had one pair of martins last season and a gourd rack, yet to be occupied, at Quiet Waters Park. So I am not giving up on martins. I am just moving 1100 miles south.

Carl

[JL Murray]

Just tell them that they are in great luck because the house also includes an established Martin Colony and that you are more than happy to include for free some of the Martin Housing along with directing them here to the FMCA Forum were they can ask questions and get great information on how to properly care for their newly acquired Martin Colony.

If they indicate that is fine news to them, Then fine and dandy just move the rest of your Martin Housing to your new place and it's a WIN WIN for all.

[Chris Brown]

Owning lots of rental properties and having bought and sold many times. I would wright on a clause allowing the colony to stay until the end of the nesting season. Then giving you permission to enter the property to manage and retrieve the houses at the end of the season. (Put in the clause that you can designate someone else to perform the management and removal) This gives you an entire season to make up your mind. Best case scenario the new owners take a lot of interest and you can then offer to give them the housing. If it turns out they couldn't care less then you pull it up and you have all winter to find it a new home. I don't know your financial situation but selling real-estate can be very stress full. So if worrying about the houses is going to cause you stress during the sale just pull them out and move on. As much as you love your martins they will move on as well. Finally assuming you are selling with a Realtor make sure you discuss the houses with him/her ahead of time. You tend to list then wait and wait and wait then the phone rings and a day later it is sold. Not a good time to be making emotional decisions. Hope this helps you make the right decision for you and your martins.
Good luck and it is absolutely great that you care this much about your martins.

[ldybala]

I agree with the last person. Just simplify things and remove the housing and move it to your new home. I moved from a house three years ago and rented it instead of selling. I left the houses there as the people who rented it were interested in the birds. They did not maintain it at all and over time it became a sparrow magnet. Still a few Martin pairs, but about 12 sparrow pairs.Last year I removed everything except one gourd rack and I intend to remove that in a few weeks. You can keep it up just before the first scouts arrive just in case the Martins are a selling point; but, that would be one in one hundred.

[~Ray~Gingerich]

Well, think of it from a martins point of view... you make a long 3,000 mile trip, you arrive at your destination tired and spent but happy to be home. But wait, there's something wrong, your home has vanished so you hang around for a week waiting and hopeing your house will reappear. So now you are homeless and search around for another home, you see one but after fighting to even take a look you find there are no vacancies. You move on again and again, you find one that looks good so you move in only to find you have to share it with the sparrows and starlings, less then ideal but you stay, after all that you find there are no mates, they have all paired up while you were out looking for a home.

Might not go down exactly like that but would certainly throw a kink into a returning martins plan for the long awaited nesting season.

[AnnieM]

One can tell from all the suggestions how much everyone loves martins and want others to feel the same. But it's a gamble. My neighbor and mentor had just this experience. He had an established colony but had to move and left the housing in place. For whatever reason, the new owners decided at some point to take it all down. I drove by their house one day and it was gone. Maybe that was better than leaving it up for HOSP to take over.

It sounds plausible to have your new owners agree to leave the housing up for the season, if u can find a trustworthy person to maintain it who the new owners agree to allow access and if so, maybe the new owners would develop an interest. If they decide against it, the housing will come down and that will be the end of it. That's a lot of ifs. And regardless what they say, there are no guarantees they will take care of the martins and all that is required. It's something all of us may face at some point. It's a tough one and no easy answers.

[bluetick]

It took me 25 years plus to get Martins. I heard someone ask my wife if she thought we would ever move to Fl. around my sister when I retired and my wife said Dave will die right here in Ohio with his birds. I will be 66 in March. She also said she wished she could get that much attention.LOL! I believe she has the old boy figured. I will not even go to my home state of W.Va. until the Martins leave in the summer. I love my birds and wish you could send your here I would take care of them for you. I bought 3 new gourd rack ( 12 gourds ea. rack ) last year getting ready for a big spring this year. I also put up an S&S and I have been working on HOSP and Starling year round. I hope someone buys the house that loves Martins. Dave The Coon Dog Man.

[CMF]

I placed one of Carl's systems at the Cape Henlopen State Park Nature Center in Lewes, DE. The manager has high hopes in getting a colony reestablished after many years of absence. Monitoring the colony will be done by the Sussex Bird Club members and Park staff volunteers. All plugged up and ready for SY birds.

[CMF]

I placed another of Carl's, a Trendsetter, which I added 4 gourd hangers, Troyers and 4 F/G driveway rods at my work colony. This put me up to 88 units.



We've got your birds covered Carl, just tell them where to find their old houses when they pass through your new year round residence in Florida.

Chuck

[jmeyer]

A few years ago we were selling our house. We put in the contract that the houses would remain until the end of the season then I would remove them. We were only moving two houses down so I wanted them to be in my new location where I could maintain them the following year. The buyers agreed to the terms.

[jmeyer]

A few years ago we were selling our house. We put in the contract that the houses would remain until the end of the season then I would remove them. We were only moving two houses down so I wanted them to be in my new location where I could maintain them the following year. The buyers agreed to the terms.

[chickadee]

I have learned in life people will lie to your face. And you can't force a hobby on someone. They will smile and act interested but then not do it. I would have advertised the house having a colony. So if their was anyone looking to move and loved martins they would know about it. How do you establish the lier from the real Martin lover? The Martin lover would of course know things about them. But in the end if it was my birds I would take it down and if room where I am moving start over. Their is a lot of colony's inTexas for the martins to go to. I moved from my moms house and treys to go back and manage the house. It was to hard so I just started over. Either way good luck it is a sad thing.

[Craig Dyer]

I was faced with a similar situation a couple of years ago. I could not bear the thought of disrupting the martins during the nesting season, so I didn't place my home on the market until mid-summer (late June). My home sold & I closed in mid-July. Just in time to watch the final youngsters fledge. I took my martin housing with me and now have it set up at my new location. People move and die all the time. The martins will adjust and move on.

[chickadee]

Jmeyer, so did your martins come back and move 2 doors with you?