Every year, my team sits down and creates a “wish list” of investigation locations. Places we have always wanted to visit and places we want to return to. Of course there are always several BIG locations on the list: Ohio State Reformatory, Waverly Hills Sanitorium, Missouri State Pen, Pennhurst Asylum, and so on. The only problem is that with BIG locations, comes big costs. So as you make your plans for the upcoming year, let’s review some of the Pros and Cons of the BIG locations. 

Pros

• Many of these locations have substantial amounts of stories and evidence supporting claims of paranormal activity. This doesn’t make it a guarantee that you will have an experience but it can increase your odds. 
• The history is often fairly well known and you can learn a lot about the location when you visit. 
• There is often much to explore, so much so that you will wish you had several days. 
• It’s often a place you have never visited and that can be exciting to experience for the first time. 

Cons

• The larger the location, the larger the price. You are looking at $1500 or more per night for many of the largest locations. Compared to some of the smaller places where you can get at least 2 nights for the same price. 
• Larger price means you need more people. For some this isn’t a con, but it is for me. I like a small team. (5 is the max number of investigators I like to have on site.)
• Larger teams means higher likelihood of noise contamination making much of your evidence unusable. 
• Larger teams can also lead to more chaos. It can become difficult to organize the movements of 10+ people over the course of one night while allowing people to experience everything and investigate. 
• The investigation often isn’t productive in furthering the team’s goals. (Unless the team’s overall goal is to visit as many places as possible.) 
• Travel expenses can be costly. If you have to travel more than 5 hours to get to a location then you will need lodging. The cheapest lodging is often a large house for the entire group but this has its own problems. (Yes, I’m an introvert so 10+ people in one house is not my idea of fun.) 

Anyway, I’m sure you are starting to get the idea that I don’t enjoy BIG investigations and you would be right. Ultimately, the time and money spent doesn’t equate to any real investigative progress. I love to see new places and for that, I would probably be fine with a day tour while on vacation. When it comes to investigating, I like to have a goal, a plan, and feel like something is accomplished. Not everyone feels this way, and that is okay. 

When you are planning your investigations for the year, take into consideration the overall team goals, individual goals, and the financial capacity of your team. You should work together to balance all of these things to ensure that everyone feels like they are getting something from the team experience and the overall team goals are still being met. This can be challenging because we all have personal lives and interests but if you have formed a solid process for making decisions and planning, you should be able to keep your team happy. 

Overall, I hope you and your team have had wonderful experiences this past year and I hope you are excited for the opportunities awaiting you in the new year. Always check in with yourself and your team to make sure your investigation needs are being met and as always, Happy Hunting!