{"id":165,"date":"2006-08-02T14:18:39","date_gmt":"2006-08-02T21:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=165"},"modified":"2006-08-02T17:52:12","modified_gmt":"2006-08-03T00:52:12","slug":"signs-of-competitive-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/165\/signs-of-competitive-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"Signs of competitive advantage . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve written about our signs before<\/a>. Counting the custom rider and the rental for the post, a configuration like that shown to the right costs about $275. The post rental is per house, of course, as is the cost of the rider. The top and middle signs are re-usable, but the weather is not kind to them. We don’t want our signs to look beat-up, so we rotate them out as soon as they start to look worn.<\/p>\n

We’ve been playing with four-color ink-jet sign printers on the riders, and I’ve known all along that someday we would be able to do custom signs for each of our listings. That day may be today. We’re meeting with a sign vendor who has a massive six-color digital ink-jet sign printer. If I can get the kind of UV and scuff-and-scratch protection I’m looking for, we may make our move now.<\/p>\n

This is Seth Godin<\/a> from November of last year:<\/p>\n

If you’re in any business where the cost to enter as a competitor is very low, you’ve got this problem. The minute there are big profits being made, competitors will flood in and steal them. This is why there are five times as many real estate brokers in San Francisco as in Steubenville, Ohio. Because the houses cost five times as much, the commissions are five times as great, so brokers show up in enough volume that everyone goes back to making exactly the same amount of money.<\/p>\n

The only way to win is to break the rules. To play by your own rules, creating a market in which the cost of entry is very high, or even impossible. If you’re the only one, then you win, by default.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr. and Mrs. Homeowner, in addition to everything else we’ve talked about, I will produce huge, stunning, traffic-stopping, custom<\/i> yard signs for your home in less than 24 hours. Is there any other Realtor you’re talking to who will make you this offer?<\/p>\n

Further notice:<\/i><\/b> Doable. Two days turnaround, which is fine. The funny part is, our current sign philosophy (which is version 2.0 for us) is losing the CRS Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve written about our signs before. Counting the custom rider and the rental for the post, a configuration like that shown to the right costs about $275. The post rental is per house, of course, as is the cost of the rider. The top and middle signs are re-usable, but the weather is not kind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-real-estate","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3278,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3278\/listing-real-estate-the-bloodhound-way-the-marketing-power-of-a-custom-yard-sign-is-not-the-color-not-the-photography-not-even-that-it-is-custom-made-its-the-text-on-the-sign-that-stops-traffi\/","url_meta":{"origin":165,"position":0},"title":"Listing real estate the Bloodhound way: The marketing power of a custom yard sign is not the color, not the photography, not even that it is custom-made — it’s the text on the sign that stops traffic","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"We've been making custom yard signs for two years now, but that represents the third generation of our sign philosophy. The second generation featured a huge picture of Odysseus the TV Spokesmodel Bloodhound, and that was a real traffic stopper when it was new. The first generation sported a huge\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2809,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2809\/whats-the-future-of-residential-real-estate-signage-i-think-its-like-the-recent-history-of-printing-only-much-much-bigger\/","url_meta":{"origin":165,"position":1},"title":"What’s the future of residential real estate signage? I think it’s like the recent history of digital printing — only much, much bigger","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The Barrys\" on Real Estate Radio USA have a burning yearning to know just what it is that listing Realtors do to earn their commissions. It's a question that plagues me, too. As much as I talk here about on-line marketing, we draw a lot more attention from sellers with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6200,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6200\/john-kalinowskis-custom-real-estate-signs-and-his-custom-made-approach-to-everything-at-his-new-cleveland-real-estate-brokerage\/","url_meta":{"origin":165,"position":2},"title":"John Kalinowski’s custom real estate signs — and his custom-made approach to everything at his new Cleveland real estate brokerage","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Totally stunning email this morning from John Kalinowski of LiquidBlueRealty.com. John is a profile in courage, to my way of looking at things. He's just launched a brand new brokerage. In this real estate market. In Cleveland. He's being very sweet to the Bloodhounds in this note, but this is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":167,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/167\/time-of-the-signs-times-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":165,"position":3},"title":"Time of the signs times two . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are a couple of demos of custom signs for listings. These aren't built to size (24x36\"), they're just scale models (~27%) so that I can see how things work together. Our normal riser will sit atop these, with a rider with the price hanging below. The whole Bloodhound sign\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1715,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1715\/black-pearls-custom-directional-signs-can-draw-buyers-to-your-listings-and-make-your-listings-seem-to-multiply\/","url_meta":{"origin":165,"position":4},"title":"Black Pearls: Custom directional signs can draw buyers to your listings — and make your listings seem to multiply","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12840,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12840\/are-you-using-qr-codes-on-your-flyers-or-signs\/","url_meta":{"origin":165,"position":5},"title":"Are you using QR codes on your flyers or signs?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Vide: That says: \"Text HOUND9 to 88000.\" If you snap a picture of it with a QR-code-reading client on your smart-phone, it should, in three steps or fewer, take you to a DriveBuy Technologies page for one of Cathleen's short sale listings. If you like good design, QR codes are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Innovation"","block_context":{"text":"Innovation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/innovation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}