Communists and Libertarians - Open House Signage
It’s something that perpetually bugs Steve and me - The proliferation of open house signs we see each Sunday. Rather than placing a helpful, periodic sign to assist in directing people to the main event, the open house sign has taken on a Burma-Shave life of its own. By all accounts, the Sunday open house ritual has become an escalating contest of wits and resources among agents to see who can attract the most attention to their name (alas, not the home itself). He with the most signs wins.
POINT
Yesterday, for example, at one intersection near my home I counted five signs placed in succession by one agent. If the motorist didn’t see the first one, or even the second or third, they really shouldn’t be driving. But as we all know, they see them all, and that is precisely the point. I highly suspect that this particular agent is not holding your home open in an attempt to (gasp!) sell it; he is there (or rather, one of his minions are there) in an attempt to sell themselves. That nobody comes to their party on the occasional slow weekend doesn’t matter. Hundreds or thousands of unsuspecting motorists now have this agents name ingrained in their subconscious, like the melody to “It’s a Small World” after a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth (or, in Steve’s case, that stupid WooHoo song from the Vonage commercial).
So rampant is this cancer that having the most signs in place on any given Sunday is no longer a definitive victory for the notoriety seeking agent. Now there is a separate war being waged to determine who can outlast - Survivor Scripps Ranch. The traditional 1:00 open house is now being signed at 10:00 am or even earlier, and it is not uncommon to see these signs remaining long after the ice has melted in the happy hour cocktail.
In the case of our immediate neighborhood, I am at a loss as to why the community isn’t in an uproar. I tried submitting to our community newsletter an open letter to agents calling for some self-respecting self-policing awhile back, yet they declined to publish it. (Ironically, coming from an agent, they felt it was too commercial). So, absent enforced rules (and we all hate those), we must live with this weekly signage blight that not only litters our neighborhood but further soils our profession’s image.
COUNTERPOINT
We recently took a listing in a new community with a very strong Homeowners Association (HOA) in place. In case you are familiar with San Diego, I won’t mention the community by name (San Elijo Hills), but suffice to say that they have taken HOA empowerment to new heights.
The owner of this home dutifully presented me with the community’s Open House Sign Policy, which reads much like a Communist Manifesto, although I am unclear which Marx wrote it (Karl or Harpo). The policy consists of a full page of eight-point font drivel, so I will share only the low points:
Homeowners may use a standard open house sign approved for use by the Community Association… agents can purchase the approved signs from any sign company (and) may obtain the artwork from (name of vendor and phone number)… Each sign must have a small label along the bottom to… include the name of the homeowner or agent, the office, a contact number and an email address.
Okay, so I have to buy “their” signs to ensure uniformity in “their” special community.
Approved Open House signage is allowed for use on Saturday’s and Sundays from 1:00 to 4:00 pm only.
Fair enough, although I am assuming that there is some grace period here, since, as dexterous as I am, I am unable to simultaneously place a half-dozen signs at various corners at the stroke of 1:00 and be present in the home to greet the incoming. But, wait a minute…
Only one sign directing traffic either left or right may be installed at each corner. The first… agent to reach an intersection on route to their open house will place their sign at the given location. (If an agent reaches an intersection and a sign is already in place), agents should continue to the next intersection on route… place their sign as necessary.
So now, I need to be the first one at each intersection along my “route”. I can’t actually erect the sign prior to 1:00 pm, but I must establish my territory and stand unwavering, armed with sign and rubber mallet to claim my corner. If I am not victorious, what happens when the owner of that corner decides to close up shop early you ask? Those clever protectors-of-our-way-of-life have thought of everything…
Because the benefit of the directional signage may be shared by other agents, signs may not be removed before 4:00 pm.
But, not after 4:00 pm, either. So, do we all meet in the Town Center (which consists of a park, a “refueling venue”, a “cafe” and a lot of dirt to soon be home to a “food replenishing facility”) and synchronize our watches at 12:55?
Too many signs = bad; too few signs = bad. So, what is the answer? Absence of reasonable enforceable and enforced rules (we still hate those) does negatively impact the community. We as an industry have demonstrated, at least in my neck of the woods, an unwillingness to practice common sense and restraint. My example of HOA’s Gone Wild (soon out on DVD), however, will have the opposite effect of that which they intended. Making it all but impossible to market my client’s home is not going to protect property values. Maintaining your “exclusivity” simply puts the seller at a competitive disadvantage.
Looks like I am going to be free this Sunday.
April 23rd, 2007 at 8:48 am
Kris - Since you stole my idea for this post and beat me to it, I can only add a few “original” thoughts:
Point - I know these types of HOA’s. I’ve seen them before. The President is this guy with a “small man” complex who goes to work each day and as a career subordinate is totally frustrated with his life. So his payback to society is to grab power through the HOA and make everyone elses life miserable. He thrives on the fact that he is making life miserable for somebody, anybody. And he has no care in the world that he is hurting the values of his neighborhood because he will never move again.
Counterpoint - The agents who place 12 signs at each corner are sentencing themselves to the same fate as Vonage with their obnoxious little song. Check their stock price. It’s the song that’s tanking their biz. I give credit to the average consumer. They will shun these agents who, by the way, need all of that extra signage since they are too cheap to run an ad for their open house that they profess (to their client) they are so “dedicated” to selling.
Got to go to an appointment. More on this subject later.
April 23rd, 2007 at 10:13 am
Kris - THANKS! Thursday-Saturday’s travel/seminar schedule was, in 20/20 hindsight, a violation of the Geneva Convention. Your post made me laugh out loud.
Since I haven’t been in the home side of the biz since 1976, I’ll assume open houses must be having loads more success in selling that particular house, than back in the day. I was a poor college student/part time agent when I first started. We had no color TV. In the fall and early winter, during football season, I’d have open houses whenever the weather sucked. This way I could watch the games, (usually the Chargers) in color, without interruption.
The result was that my farm looked at all the open houses I was sitting, and said “That kid sure does earn is commissions.”
Has the effectiveness of open houses improved that much? Or is it still just a solid source of leads for the agent while convincing the neighborhood how hard working the agent is?
Again, great post - funny and right on target. You’re the best.
Steve - Please hurry with the rest of the story.
April 23rd, 2007 at 11:05 am
Hey, Jeff! To answer your question, a year ago I was singing the Open Houses Are A Waste O’ My Time song. The neighbors, hobbyists, and on-our-way-home-from-church crowds were the only attendees, and even the agent who did it for the transparent, self-serving reason of nailing “prospects” was generally disappointed. The serious shoppers had been to thirty-seven homes that particular day and had been beat silly at each with a Free List of Homes, so the last thing they wanted to do was strike up another conversation with an agent trolling for business. (”So, do you live around here?”).
Now… The way buyers shop and the way we do business (online) is changing. More buyers are having to rely on the open house for access, as they either have a fear of commitment to an agent or are deferring commitment until they find the home (and, therefore, the agent who might be willing to “deal”). I see the open house as a time management technique for the listing agent, as it gives everybody convenient access during one prescribed time slot and keeps that agent from running themselves ragged all week showing one would-be buyer at a time.
Steve is out doing real work at the moment (about time, I would say), but I am sure he will finish his light-hearted, feel-good remarks upon his return - Right after he kicks the dog.
April 23rd, 2007 at 2:07 pm
You made me laugh out loud…and cower in fear.
I have not seen this kind of display of open house signs here in KC. But fear not, we are always two years behind CA. Sooner or later some agent will think this is a great idea and I’ll just start laughing, remembering this post, of course.
I do have one question. If it takes 5 signs for the consumer to see that the house is open how much time will it take him to go through the house?
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Chris -
Since Kansas is still appararently “pure”, you probably don’t believe me. I will be sure and take some pictures this weekend. Ah, innocence… And if you ever come to San Diego, be sure to stay off of “my” corner.
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Hello Kris; Great post. We here in sunny(haha) Lakewood Ranch, Fl. have an HOA that is really restrictive. Bunch of “older” folks with nothing better to do with their time, but make everyones lives miserable. They take deed restricted to a new level.
We here also have to have standard signs, mainly for selling or renting a house.
Open houses are abundant and can be taken in every day of the week(see aformentioned comment about people with too much time).
This is a bit off topic but covers signs & HOAs in a different light. I got into a discussion with one of the HOA czars and she actually told me that they were considering banning real estate street signs for sellers because they gave people the impression that something was wrong with the neighborhood. You would only be allowed one sign that had to be in your window. Currently, the sign has to be so many feet from the street, which requires an interested party to get out of the car to grab a flyer, which are not common at all. All we have is the standard sign with the agents name & phone number.
Lastly, remember the lady I allowed into my house(before we signed on with you & Steve)whose husband was in a wheel chair??Made that poor man get out of the van and patrol our house, just to see what decorating ideas she could come up with, and it wasn’t even an open house..
April 24th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Hi, Rich! Yeah - I understand the spirit of sign restrictions (see “Point”), but some HOA’s have gone too far into territory of regulating the residents out of a potential sale. And you and I know we aren’t talking about multi-million dollar gated estate communities here. My example, in fact, involved a modest two-bedroom townhome.
I had one condo listing a couple of years ago where we had a particularly militant HOA on our hands. They allowed the one sign in a front-facing window. The problem was that this unit had no front-facing window. The seller actually came up with the solution. Knowing that her HOA enforcement squad took their compliance walks on Thursdays, she we pull up my stake each Wednesday night and put it back Friday morning. A real crime wave, we were, but mission accomplished.
April 24th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Next you’ll need to have someone stand at each corner and hold up the Open House sign only as people drive by…
April 25th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Greg,
Oh, no! They have a clause in the manifesto that forbids live people with arrows/signage. Those guys thought of everything! I, for one, am not prepared to bail a bunch of high school students out of jail in the name of marketing.
April 25th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
The HOA will need to increase their budget to pay for the one person who will actually need to stand at the corner - the security guard, who will be responsible for breaking up the fights between the many agents who will claim they were there first. Oh lord…
May 1st, 2007 at 3:36 pm
( … Yet another reason why I can’t stand (or sit) Open Houses … )
Thsi was hillarious! Thank you for the laugh
May 7th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
[…] up at Lasner on Real Estate at the Orange County Register. Writing from The San Diego Home Blog, Kris Berg took fifth place for her playful rant on open house signs. Russell Shaw came in second place with […]
May 9th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
I know you mentioned no live people…. What about a corpse with a sign affixed, or a cute donkey-striped-like-a-zeba-tijuana-style with a sign on it grazing at the corner? Its probably a good thing im not a Realtor….