“Bandit signs are a cheap and awesome way to find motivated sellers. I wanted to make a post to show you how I use them in my business and some of the tips I have picked up along the way.
What are bandit signs? well they are those we buy houses signs on the side of the road that you see everywhere. They are great for finding motivated sellers. They will drive tons of calls.
Here are the 15 best tips I could think of but before you read on please check out this quick disclaimer. I want everyone to be aware.
Quick Disclaimer – Bandit signs are illegal and you can get tickets for putting them up, but as long as you follow these tips and dont over do it you should be fine.
Tip #1 – Yellow signs with black lettering works the best, second best is white signs with blue letters
Tip #2 – Dont over crowd your sign with too much. Try to keep it to 2 or 3 lines
Tip #3 – either use your phone number or website address not both if you want to use both then here is a great tip buy the website address of your phone number for example www.888-555-5555.com
Tip #4 – Buy signs in bulk its cheaper and if you plan to make any real money you will need to consistently put up tons of signs. Here is the cheapest place to find signs
http://www.dirtcheapsigns.com/ they have 100 signs for $155 bucks and that’s the cheapest I have found. Here is another great place I recommend you use BanditSigns.com
Tip #5 – To avoid hassle by the sign police be smart. Dont put signs up in areas where there arent other signs these are the areas where you will find the sign police or if its a nicer area most likely the neighbors will call on you or take them down.
Tip #6 – If you dont want to buy the stakes (because they can be the most expensive part) You can buy some cheaper 1×2?s at your local hardware store. Most people use them for tomato plants. You should be able to get an 8ft piece for a dollar or two and you can get about 3 stakes out of each so its cheaper in the long run. But you will have to buy and use the nails to attach the stake to sign that have the plastic washers on them so the nails dont pull through.
Tip #7 – Only use 18×24 dont use anything smaller or it will be a waste of time. Most people buy them because the are cheaper either save more money or buy less of the big ones. I repeat do not use any signs smaller than 18×24
Tip #8 – when hanging your signs you have a few options. You can use telephone poles to hang your signs on and if you do this you have 2 options you can use the nails with the plastic washers. These will hold it tight and not let the nails pull through but the problem with this is that its hard to do with one person and in most cases you will need a ladder so you can get them up high so people cant pull them down. This can be kind of dangerous.
The best way if you plan to hang your signs on telephone poles is to use a tool called the sign stapler. You can check it out here www.signstapler.com It allows you to get your signs really high in the air with one person and without dangerous ladders. It will cut your time dramatically.
The other ways to hang signs are on stakes in the ground or with zip ties if you want to attach around a metal pole.
Tip #9 – Dont ruin it for everyone. You dont want to be the person that learns about bandit signs and puts up a hundred signs within a few blocks and piss everyone off. It will ruin it for you and all of the other investors because the sign police will crack down really hard and then you will have to wait months before you can start to post signs again. I would only put signs like every quarter mile or so. You want to canvas a large area with your signs.
Tip #10 – test vanity numbers versus easy to remember local numbers and see what wors best in your area. I find local numbers work best.
Tip #11 – You can use pre paid phone if you dont want the sign police to have your real number. In most cases they cant trace these and wont be able to find out who you are unless they catch you out putting up actual signs
Tip #12 – If your worried about getting tickets then put your signs up on friday nights and take them down sunday evenings. This is what most big house builders do.
Tip #13 – you want to make sure you put your signs up on a friday evening , saturday, or sunday, or after 5 or 6 pm during the week because thats typically when the sign police are off work.
Tip #14- here are some ideas that have worked
We Buy Houses Ill Pay Cash For Your House We Buy Houses Cash
We can Stop Foreclosure Close Quick Close Quick
xxx-xxx-xxxx xxx-xxx-xxxx xxx-xxx-xxxx
Handwriting font has alo worked well. They can print them with handwriting font if you want or you can buy blank signs and a big black marker and make them yourself..
Tip #15- if you plan to hire someone to hang signs for you here are some great tips.
pay them per sign not hourly
make them take pictures of the signs they place
drive by and check them
increase their pay if they stay for 6 months
you must understand this will be a high turnover job
make them sign a waiver of responsibility if they get hurt
you can post ads on craigslist to find them
Source: realestate_iq
