Bandit Signs 101

Black and Yellow seem to work good. I have had good results with blue and white as well and if you check banditsigns.com they swear by blue and white. I'll go ahead and put out a book on this right now since I've owned 2 marketing companies and put out literally 100's of these all over StL every month. It's about putting them out and keeping them up. Marketing, marketing, marketing.

1.. Keep it short and simple as mentioned above. I don't even put my website on bandit signs.

2.. Smalls signs for slow traffic areas. Mainly residential. 12x18. These are cheaper.

3.. Larger signs for faster traffic areas. Business or commercial. 18x24. These signs are more expensive.

4.. Place these at big box stores and intersections. McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowes, stoplights, stop signs. You get the point.

5.. When you hammer these in the ground... It's summertime in the midwest. That means grass is growing and as a result it's being cut. I see people put signs in the middle of an area where grass gets cut. Guess what? They get pulled because they are in the way of a lawn mower. It's not bringing you leads if it's in a trash can or the back of a lawn care specialists truck. Solution: Stake them next to utility poles and other objects these people mow AROUND. The mowers mow around them and make it more visible instead of pulling it and tossing it. LOL.

6.. Smaller signs stay up longer because they are less noticed by the code inspector. Yes a code inspector may call you if you SATURATE a high end neighborhood.

7.. Lower quality neighborhoods keep signs up longer.

8.. Higher quality neighborhoods pull signs down quicker.

9.. No matter the neighborhood the code enforcer doesn't work on weekends. So put your signs up Friday night or Saturday morning. They stay up all weekend that way.

10.. If you see a yardsale sign stuck to a utility pole put your sign up next to that utility pole. Use THEIR marketing to your advantage.

11.. NEVER nail your sign to a utility pole. The code enforcer will flip!

12.. At minimum put 25 signs in an area. Obviously the larger the neighborhood the more signs you need. Don't put one on every other pole going down a road. (yes I did this when I got started).

13.. In crappier neighborhoods you will be able to get away with posting more signs in a more condensed area.

14.. A sign is a sign. It sticks out to people looking for it. Size rarely makes any difference unless you are for some reason posting these not at places where people stop.

15.. Consistency. Your first sign campaign may not yield good results. You're new, have realistic expectations. Don't get discouraged! Market the same area at least twice before moving to a new neighborhood. If you've done your homework you know where investors are buying anyways and where people are selling. Be sure to put signs in that neighborhood every weekend or every other weekend. Rotate a few other batches to do test runs of other neighborhoods. Be sure a test run is 2 weekends in a row.

16.. Handwritten signs sell properties. Pre-printed signs get you deals. Investors want to know they are talking to the person who can get the deal closed. Sellers want to know they are talking to a reputable company and not some fly by night wanna be wholesaler. YOU ARE A BUSINESS. TREAT IT LIKE A BUSINESS AND IT WILL PAY YOU LIKE A BUSINESS SHOULD.

17.. Be aware of your surroundings. I have one of my degree's in design. There is a thing called a color wheel. That has complementary colors and supplementary colors. The same way black pops off of yellow and blue pops off of white so will your sign pop off of it's surroundings. IE. Don't put a brown sign against a utility pole. Don't put a green sign in tall grass. You get the point.

18.. Don't put a tracable number on your bandit signs. Mine initially was my cell nubmer and I changed my greeting to say "You've reached Ben with the investment group, etc". No last name. Hard to trace. Cell numbers are a pain to trace, especially with no last name. Today I put a local number bought from a company in indonesia on my signs which is forwarded to my PRIVATE 800 number. This way I can saturate an area with signs and not worry about code enforcers no matter the neighborhood. If the code enforcer calls they get my virtual assitant. If they were to ever try to find out who owns the number some indonesian company shows up. LOL. There's no way, even if they tried, that they could fine me. It's more of a pain in the tail for them than it's worth. Don't worry about that though. Stick to my previously mentioned methods and you'll be safe. I also am sure not to abuse the privilege.

See my blog post titled "Lowe's Knows". You'll get a feel for what you need when putting out bandit signs. It's as thorough as this reply. So far I have never been fined (crossing my fingers). Follow these guidlines and neither will you.

You can put them out on Friday and pick them up Sunday. Personally I'm liquid enough that I really don't care to pick them up. The city people pick them up, far as I'm concerned they work for me. The tax write off is more important to me anyways. It's literally cheaper for me to buy signs because of the tax write off. Keep taking action and you will in the same boat.

The point to bandit signs is marketing. The point to marketing is to have people call you! You don't want to cold call people like FSBO's and FOR RENT ads or signs. It's a waste of precious time. When you market properly deals call you and that changes the entire tone of the conversation. Why cold call like some early 90's door to door Amway "Business Owner" or Kirby vacuum salesman? Instead have people calling you anxious to sell. It ups your closing rate and ensures you deal mostly with deals that are profitable to you, not just tire kickers. Market enough and you can even get picky. "If you don't leave me a message then you don't get called back." That's my philosophy. Others will IMMEDIATELY disagree. However, I don't have time to chase tire kickers. I put out bait, set the trap, and leads come to me. I want ONLY motivated sellers so I can make maximum use of my time. I'm a project manager for a fortune 500 by day. I don't have time all day to cold call newspaper ads or mess with tire kickers and I bet 90% of the people reading this don't either regarless of their "job title". People do this on the side to start, not full time. That's the fact.

On a separate note... I have a guy put these signs out for $1 a piece. Plus I give him a $250 bonus if a deal closes on his efforts (much cheaper than I pay bird dogs). Believe me it's worth it! He's almost 7 feet tall too. I get calls all the time stating "I saw your giant putting out signs". I just laugh because I'm 5'10". I can't even give this guy a high five without the aide of a ladder.

This business is fun. Remember to keep it fun. I promise if you stick after it you will make some mad cash. I put $4500 in my pocket on the first deal and took a random trip to Vegas. Never once gambled, yet I somehow figured out how to spend all the money. Truly a trip that will forever be remembered if only I could remember half the stuff we did (it was worse than the movie The Hangover). I can't share because what happens in Vegas stays there. Feel free to PM me anytime. Let me know where you're at and I'll see if I have any deals in that area. We'll have taken over StL by October and will be looking invest abroad. Plus I'd be curious to check in on your progress as you go. We can probably make some money together.

I hope this helps.

Own Your Situation,
Ben