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A couple years ago a house two streets away had an estate sale after the elderly
gentleman who owned it passed on. There was a lot of old amateur radio gear for
sale, and most of it had been bought early in the morning, right after the beginning
of the sale according to the man's daughter who was on-hand. The newspaper notice
mentioned the Ham equipment. In the back yard was a nice 40-foot crank-up tower
that was a bit weather-worn, but otherwise appeared to be in good condition. She
said that was the first item sold. I didn't ask how much she got for it. The house
was to be sold, and they were glad to have the tower gone before listing it on the
market.
 I
have wondered in the past when seeing a "For Sale" sign in the lawn of a house with
one or more radio towers in the yard how much they would impact the sale price.
Some Hams would plan to take the towers and antennas with them to the new house,
but otherwise would their presence potentially make the house more difficult to
sell at a good price? Back in the days when a nice, high TV antenna would be valuable,
having a tower of reasonable height might have been an asset, but nowadays a tower
would be a nuisance and eyesore to a non-Ham. There are of course Amateurs looking
to buy a new house that would appreciate a pre-installed tower, but they are a small
percentage of buyers.
The
February 2020 issue of the ARRL's QST magazine has an
article by Allison McLellan entitled, "Radio-Friendly Real Estate" that addresses
the issue. As you might expect, there are some home selling firms that specialize
in marketing property that comes with towers (some with antennas) on the premises,
or are located in areas free from neighborhood (HOA) and/or local zoning prohibitions
or restrictions. Sometimes pre-existing towers quality for an exemption by virtue
of a grandfather
clause. Ms. McLellan mentions that the
eham.net website forum's
Classified area is a popular spot for Hams to list houses for sale. Select "HAM
Homes" from the search page dropdown list, and enter a specific term ("e.g., "house")
in the Text field. Many are marked as "SOLD," so people are having success there.
Other Ham radio forums can be used as well.
She also mentions the HamRadioHomes.com website, run by QTH.com Classifieds webmaster Scott Neader (KA9FOX), which was
created specifically to provide a venue for properties already outfitted for the
special needs of Ham operators. At this time there appears to be a little over a
dozen homes listed for sale ranging in location from Prince Edward Island, Canada,
to Florida to Oregon. Some have a single tower while others have many. Prices go
from under $100k to over $1,000,000. The price for listing your home - until it
sells - is a mere $99. That's a very small price to pay considering that it might
just find you a buyer doing a search for Ham radio-friendly property. In fact, if
your do a Google search on "ham friendly house," "ham-friendly property," or some variant thereof, HamRadioHomes.com
returns at the top of the page.
The same type of search for Ham radio properties also turns up many negative
issues with homes for sale having towers and/or antennas already erected. Many neighbors
consider them to be an eyesore that devalue their own nearby homes, and complain
of bleed-over into other over-the-air broadcasts. Others blame their garage door
malfunctions, Wi-Fi router signal troubles, and other strangeness on their avid
radio amateur neighbors. Some even think their smart meters are being affected by
transmissions and causing erroneously high utility bills. Although I hesitate to
mention it, the situation can possibly be used in your favor as a buyer if you feign
concern over the problem disposing of the tower(s) would cause, and the liability
of having such a structure on the property. If the house has been on the market
for many months, and particularly if winter is on the way, you might be successful
with a low-ball offer that will get you the Ham-friendly property you really want.
Posted January 31, 2020
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