Make the Most of Your Real Estate For-Sale Sign Marketing Potential
Quick: when marketing your listings, which marketing tools bring in the most phone calls?
If your answer doesn’t include “the sign stuck in my listing’s front yard,” think again.
Naturally, buyers’ agents are the primary source of buyers for a listing, with the internet coming in second, according to the 2022 NAR Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends report.
Yard signs come in fourth, with 35% of buyers claiming to have used them as a source when searching for a home.
Using signage in your real estate practice is, thankfully, a no-brainer. Depending on the market, all it takes is an account with a sign company and a phone call to them when you need it installed or taken down.
History of Real Estate Signage
From the industry’s infancy, the real estate yard sign has honorably served two purposes:
- To let the public know that the home behind the sign was for sale.
- Held contact information for consumers to call if they needed information on the home.
When brokerages came into being, they quickly figured out they could brand these signs with the company’s logo.
More recently, agents decided to uncouple their brand from that of their brokers’. “Agents no longer wanted to wrap their identity into the broker’s identity,” claims Monte Pratt of Jack Pratt Signs.
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Real Estate Signs Today
Grabbing the attention of passers-by may be the number one benefit of for-sale signs for real estate agents, but they can do so much more.
Sign riders and brochure holders may not be new, but they turn your real estate signs into multi-taskers. This is why we were surprised at the many agents we spoke with who don’t use brochure holders unless the homeowner asks for them.
Yes, neighbors may complain if fliers are littering their yards, and kids tend to pilfer them. But if keeping the fliers stocked helps even one potential buyer to find you, it’s worth it.
On the other hand, sign riders can help solidify your branding efforts in the area.
Remember the agent who used a rider that read “Not Haunted” on the for-sale sign at one of his listings? That was Jake Palmer, and the strategy made his real estate practice go viral.
He went on to use riders that claimed the home has “Indoor Plumbing” and that it’s a “Love Shack, Baby.” The riders were so humorous and effective that, according to Palmer, people would drive around looking for his real estate signs.
Price reductions were the norm when the housing market crashed, and the haggling of bargain shoppers frustrated listing agents.
One Tennessee broker dealt with the problem when he had printed, in smaller font and just below the word “Reduced,” it said, “but not stupid or desperate.”
We think that riders are the ideal place to emblazon your real estate website’s URL. Many agents choose to use their social media addresses instead.
We’d love to hear if you’re considering using your real estate signs in new and creative ways.
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