Pointing the right way to a successful sale

By Justin Hunter

There are a number of ways to sell a home. Regardless of whether you are in a buyer’s or seller’s market, you will benefit from aggressive advertising. But depending on budget and location, certain advertising techniques may not apply.

However, there is one way to get people to view your property that has been time-tested since before any other notions of advertising was created, and that is the use of the directional red arrow sign.

Tim Randle’s article, “Directionals Move Properties,” which is published on reiclub.com explains why this technique is still so effective.

“Yes, there are numerous other methods you can use such as: flyers in the neighborhood and large stores and shopping malls, ads in the large and small papers, listings on the Internet, listing with a real estate agent, etc.”

But Randle contests that directional arrow signs work the best in advertising your property for sale.

So, then why do they work so well?

First, they are located within the vicinity of the property so the prospective buyers who will notice the sign are already in the neighborhood, which means that they were probably looking for real estate in the area to begin with.

Other people who will notice the directional signs already live in the neighborhood. They alone will help market your property by notifying family and friends who they know are looking for a property in their neighborhood.

They are more eye-catching than signs with words and description on them and they leave it up to the buyer’s imagination to find out; What? Where? How much?

The thing about advertising with directional signs is just that, you use multiple signs to effectively advertise the property.
“I'm talking an entire series of signs that leads the prospect from the main thoroughfare all the way through the neighborhood to the driveway of your property. There's no thinking, major squinting, turning around, or phone calls involved here. ‘Oh, honey, turn there quick.’ Then it's ‘look, there's another sign, turn there.’ etc., all the way to the property. Then, of course, there's more information including contact numbers available at the property.”

In order to implement this technique you must first determine the best way to navigate prospective buyers from various points, to your property without confusing them.

You should also take in consideration certain landmarks such as parks and schools to help navigate your buyers.

“My target locations are at every single corner that my prospects will need to turn in order to get to the property. My experience has been that I will have to replace signs within the neighborhood only a few times, but I have to monitor the signs on the major roads and replace them fairly frequently.”

Then you can knock on people’s doors and ask them if you can place a directional sign on their property. You want to do this when they are not home, through a letter and hope they call. Asking them in person will prompt you to have to have a lengthy conversation about what you are doing. You do not have time to do that with every house you stop at.

The letter should state a few things to help convince the home owner to let you post your sign in their yard:
“It's just a small directional arrow sign. I'll put it right by the corner and not really in their yard. I'll make sure I don't damage any sprinkler systems. They get a $20 gift certificate once the process is done. They get to choose the store, restaurant, etc. Please call me to replace the sign if it gets removed. The first person who calls me wins.”

You may end up paying up to $200 to accomplish this but that is equivalent to newspaper advertising, while your signs can last longer.

Go in the right direction by creatively advertising your home.

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