EP.1261 REAL ESTATE SIGNBOARD MAFIA “it’s a real thing ;/“

What if your "For Sale" sign could tell a whole story? Join us in this hilarious and enlightening episode where we pull back the curtain on the world of real estate signage, featuring our special guest, Cleo. You'll hear about the astonishing evolution of these everyday boards, the hefty price tags they carry, and the cheeky "signage warfare" that erupts between competing agents. From stealing directionals to slyly swapping signs, this episode exposes the antics and high-stakes drama you never knew existed in real estate.

Cleo shares some jaw-dropping anecdotes, including a memorable tale of an $8 million property whose oversized signboards sparked a surprising council complaint. You'll also get a front-row seat to the absurd battles over signboard sizes and the stringent regulations that govern them. Whether you're in the real estate business or just someone who loves a good behind-the-scenes story, this episode is packed with insights and laughs that you won't want to miss. Get ready for a unique and entertaining exploration into the quirky world of real estate signage!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Ladies and Members of the public, real estate signage. You see it all around town. There is an undercurrent, there is an underworld. It's a real thing. Real estate signage. We're going to have a joke with it today and tell you everything you didn't know about it. It's pretty bloody interesting. Stay tuned. I'm the ringleader, so what's up? Hey?

Speaker 2: 0:39

Good morning. How are you?

Speaker 1: 0:42

Cleo with you how are you today.

Speaker 2: 0:44

I'm good. I'm great it's not raining this morning, so, yeah, I can do the school drop off and get to work without getting drenched. I love it.

Speaker 1: 0:55

We're going to have blue skies in Sydney, I think, but it's still cold.

Speaker 2: 0:59

It is still cold, it's very cold. But you know, cold is good too. Cold's good keeps you young, they say so claire.

Speaker 1: 1:08

Tell me about real estate signage. It's what a lot of people don't know is uh, it's a big ticket item. Agents and uh and their clients spend a fortune with signage at the front. The signage is not only the boards that go in front of the property, but it's the directionals and those little things that stick in the ground up on corners. In some areas they go ham. They put hundreds of them up on street corners. There's window signage for commercial properties. It's a big deal, it's a big cost.

Speaker 2: 1:41

It sure is, and we've come such a long, long way. Like looking back at you know, when I first started in real estate, at the signboards and what they're like now, like it doesn't even compare with how you know that signboard journey. I know it's a pet peeve of yours. Our signboards have evolved over time and you know the art of perfection is definitely what we strive for at Novak with our signs.

Speaker 1: 2:11

Oh, it's pretty funny. There's a bit of warfare in there. There's signboard signage warfare, signage mafia. There's agents dobbing each other in on their signage for people that don't know. There's agents that steal directionals, Because what happens is that thing that goes into the ground is worth about $80. So they often steal the directional signage and then put their core fluid sign in place of it. That's great.

Speaker 1: 2:48

There's a real thing that's never really spoken about in public, but like I don't know if you know how we've got that property for sale up in Minkara. Yes, we said to the owner look, this is, you know, big five acres. It's on pretty much two streets. There's three opportunities for signboards. Let's go. Let's go. It's $8 million property, let $10 million, whatever it was. Let's go hard with signage. He's like good idea. So we put a signboard up which was six foot by four foot, which is sort of the size of a bit bigger than a double door fridge.

Speaker 1: 3:26

Um, yeah like a billboard. Three of them. And then council called us and said get that signboard down what?

Speaker 2: 3:35

what?

Speaker 1: 3:36

because it's distracting to the driver no, because other someone complained oh, they dobbed in, oh really my own is like mine is like looking at me, gang, why would anyone complain about signage like we're in the middle of nowhere? Like in the middle of nowhere, it's not like it's a main road or something and you know it's pretty sort of there.

Speaker 1: 4:00

The signs look actually pretty small when they're in, you know, on a five acre block and then we we took the signs down and we put like a little bit of banter between the council and took the signs down and, um, the sign we put up the regulation is 1.2 meters squared of surface area, so pretty much that's a. That's about a meter by a meter. And the owner was like that is ridiculous. That size are you? Is that the largest board you're allowed to have? And we're like, yep, he's like that is pathetic and who determines.

Speaker 2: 4:36

You know who determines that sign board, sign measurements like honestly, that's like a jimmy giggle skit. You know who decides the.

Speaker 2: 4:46

You know that besides the board yeah, this is this crazy, but I do know the the warfare side of it. I remember you know you would strategically place your board in front or somewhere in front of another agent's board back in the day, like you know especially I, when you know it was ocean street, I remember, and you know ocean straight's a popular straight and you know we'd always put our boards out last, you know. So you'd see the agents and put their boards in and you put yours right in the front and then you go there the next saturday and yours has been put back, or moved Saturday and yours has been put back or moved or kicked over.

Speaker 2: 5:26

Graffiti. Even you know your face.

Speaker 1: 5:34

But we were told by the council guys it was another real estate agent that complained on our board.

Speaker 2: 5:37

Wow, and there's not so many properties for sale out there, like what the I was like, are you serious?

Speaker 1: 5:45

Like you know, to give you an idea and a perspective, these boards are $300, $400 a board. Generally. The sellers pay for them and it's like you know, give the guy a break and look, I think you know, do real estate agents go wild? Yeah, maybe, you know we probably go a bit hard with that, with their real estate signage, but it works. It works. It actually directly sells properties for people that just don't know that it's available for sale. They would never go to the real estate portals to have a look. They wouldn't go to social media to have a look. And next thing, you know, the one in their street comes up for sale and they know that because there's the board that's in front of the property. They actually work really, really well. So they're really essential part of marketing in our campaign yeah, it's the most simple form of advertising.

Speaker 2: 6:34

You know the product, the office and how people can get in touch with the person. You know who's handling that. Um, even in rentals, you know we get calls all the time. You know, notice the board, go up, is there something for rent in this building? And then you can then direct them to a yes or no or we have something else. But the sign board is what triggers them, which is really good and important. What about, um, the owners that are funny about having neighbors know their properties on you know they don't want the sign board.

Speaker 1: 7:07

Well, some owners yeah, some owners like no, we don't want a board. Because, you know, I feel a bit uneasy. I've got to say, when I sold my place and the board went up me, that was the biggest like drop of like. Oh my god, oh shit, like that's. When it really hit me the most is when I physically saw the board from. Yeah, it was that's what it just it hit me like a like a ton of bricks, um. But there's something about a board going on your property. It's big and it's emotional, um. But yeah, some owners just don't want it because they don't want the neighbors to know. But it's like, how can your neighbor not know when they see like a bunch of suits to turning up all the time in front of your property, walking in and out uh, isn't it bloody obvious? And buyers standing at the front. You know two buyers standing at the front of the property waiting for the real estate agent to turn up, um, it's weird yeah, it's almost like a dirty secret sort of thing, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 8:12

you don't you? You know, I guess, when you're in your community as well? Sometimes you don't divulge the reasons why you're selling. You know, or you're moving or this or that, so it is a way of publishing what's going on in your life to everybody else around you. Yeah, we also have the stratas that don't let you have a signboard at all. There's like a bylaw. There's no signboards.

Speaker 1: 8:36

Well, we've got a place in Jubilee 15, jubilee, worrywood, racing Jubilee, uh, 15 Jubilee Worrywood. Where we've got it was 25 townhouses and 50 storage units. Um, and he just the developer, said to me the other day he's like man, what's with all the boards in front of the property and, like you know, he sold most them now so everyone's like re-letting them. A couple of people are selling, but there's like nine different signboards in front of his property. And he's like what I didn't even realize, there was that many real estate agents that do commercial in the Northern beaches. So it doesn't look good, it doesn't look good.

Speaker 2: 9:18

Overload.

Speaker 1: 9:20

Overload. Overload and particularly, it's less prevalent than when I started in the business, but in residential people used to have two or three agents. So agents used to have two or three boards or four boards in front of the property. One house with four boards in front of it uh, look terrible. It looked like the owner can't sell the property. It looks like the Looks like it just made the property look bad. But you don't see that as much these days, but it does happen. Agents on the board, when there's lots of boards at the front, looks like shit.

Speaker 2: 9:53

Yeah, on the one property, I agree. I do recall someone saying you know that market share. When you're out driving around and you see all the sign boards, whatever stands out the most is who's got the most boards out there. Like how he who has the most boards wins the war. Like that agent has a lot in that area. You used to be able to, yeah, tell, oh, they must be doing really well, there's a lot of their boards around, you know that's. Another indication is signage.

Speaker 1: 10:28

Well, those things that stick in the ground, we call them directionals and they say open 222, 45, 27, francis Street. Right, yeah, the agents were getting to a stage where for that one property, they would put 12 signs out and they would start like all the way up the end of the street, all the way up the other end of the street to the next street, to the street after that, to the street after that, to the street after that. And what actually started to happen is you started to go through Cromart was where I noticed it the most People would nail suburbs with these directional signs that poke into the ground on a Saturday and then it started happening on a Wednesday and then agents were actually leaving them out, sometimes over weekends. It got really messy. Council just went, can't do it anymore, done and that was the office. Junior just went, can't do anymore Done.

Speaker 2: 11:24

And that was the office junior's job, wasn't it? The night before the Saturday? He had to go out at night and put out the directionals for the Saturday morning.

Speaker 1: 11:34

Oh, it was a big thing, but you know that signage is huge. And then another thing that we do is the um, the signage for commercial properties in in glass windows, um, but you know what they're. I think, in terms of what you said, like people that do dominate with signs, they do dominate the suburbs. I think signage, uh, definitely works in the industry. So if people are out there scratching their heads, um, is it for my property, that signage, or is it for the real estate agent? Probably a bit of both. Both, yeah, but it definitely sells properties.

Speaker 2: 12:10

Yeah, our commercial signage is so innovative it's a lot more creative, like with the lighting and everything. You know amazing commercial people do at our office I mean our signboard's for residential rentals. You know, amazing commercial people do at our office the the I mean our sign boards for residential rentals. Um, you know, having them go from four least to least, you know is is not so innovative, but it would have been back back when I first started. You just got that sticker out, didn't you?

Speaker 1: 12:37

and then you just had to put sticker out they all got stickers and they were all in sticky when you rip the stickers off. So now, our boards. Just get, just get switched. The back says leads to the front and the front says for lease. Um, all the good day.

Speaker 1: 12:51

Novate dominates the beaches yes yes, but the and one of the things that if people don't know they're from out of the area, one of the things that we do before we go, um is pink lights. So in commercial properties will light up the inside of the building, hot pink um. And when you drive fast at night, boy does that turn heads. It's uh, it's not a brothel red, it's a. It's a hot pink um, but it looks it's so 80s and and it and it really turns heads. Do you want to see a photo before we go?

Speaker 1: 13:26

yes, please I um, here we go, guys. This is your hot pink. And again it's. It is signage, so it's it's chain, it's just lighting, but look at that.

Speaker 2: 13:46

It's just lighting. But look at that. Yeah, so you can't go past that and not have a conversation about what that is. That's like vivid stuff. It's so good. It's like vivid. Yes, it's sick.

Speaker 1: 14:00

Insane, right? So talk about making a place pop. There you go, guys. There's signage for you and there's our signage. You can see the black and white compared to the rest.

Speaker 2: 14:14

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:14

We definitely stand out.

Speaker 2: 14:16

That's so good.

Speaker 1: 14:17

Boom, shakalaka Turns Vellie. Ball's head yeah you know Vell, there's Vell All right, yeah, you know, vell, there's. Vell. There you are, dave, all right, have a great day, cleo.

Speaker 2: 14:29

Bye, you too Talk soon. Everyone have a great day.

Speaker 1: 14:31

That's real estate signage. Love you, see you Bye.