Okay, here’s a Black Pearl made from sandy irritants we picked up at the StarPower Conference.
First, one of the Stars is making custom signs featuring photographs of the listed home. I’ve been writing about custom yard signs for more than a year now, but, so far, I haven’t heard from anyone who is doing them — other than us, that is. What the Star is doing is not our way of making the signs. He’s putting up his regular brokerage sign, then supplementing it with a separate sign that features photos of the home.
Second, another different Star is using directional signs to direct buyer traffic from main thoroughfares into the subdivisions where her listed homes are to be found. These are the size of an Open House directional, but they’re mounted in the yards of cooperating (or compensated) neighbors.
This idea I liked a lot for two reasons. First, it would tend to bring more buyers to the listed home. And second, using these directionals would tend to make it look like you had half-a-dozen listings nearby, rather than just one or two. You could be half the signs in the neighborhood with one listing. If you list in that subdivision frequently, the directionals need never come down, and they could serve more than one home.
Where’s the Black Pearl? Put the two ideas together in custom-made directionals:
These would be coroplast signs mounted on wire H-frames. Any sign printer can do them. Any Kinko’s can do them. They’re cheap to print in bulk, so you can hold out some replacements for stolen or damaged signs. Meanwhile, the photos do some of the jobs we expect from the custom yard sign: They stop traffic and preview the house. At the same time, they radically differentiate you as a lister.
This is pretty simple compared to some of the ideas we’re playing with, but it seems like a sweet little supplement to the idea of custom yard signs.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing, real estate training, StarPower
John L. Wake says:
Sam Miller, the guy with the photo yard sign, also said that he makes one or two photo directional signs. The directional is basically the photo of the exterior of the home with an arrow in the bottom or top of the photo.
Sam is in a small town in Ohio where I guess it’s customary to use semi-permanent directional signs that stay up until the home sells.
July 31, 2007 — 7:52 am
Greg Swann says:
> Sam is in a small town in Ohio where I guess it’s customary to use semi-permanent directional signs that stay up until the home sells.
Tim Mullan is using very small directionals in North Central Phoenix.
July 31, 2007 — 8:07 am
Derek Burress says:
Around here, we just post red arrows on stop and warning signs and everyone just gets bored from being stuck behind John Deere tractors and decide to take a detour and follow the red arrows. Sometimes it’s a house for sale and others, it’s nothing more than a garage sale.
July 31, 2007 — 10:18 am
J. Ferris says:
I like Sam Miller’s idea and it’s a toss up as to which is better but from what I’ve seen Greg’s sign is more pleasing to the eye.
August 6, 2007 — 10:35 am