Bandit Signs

I believe it's true... but the fine compared to the profit is pretty miniscule.. especially if that sign lead to your deal.

HOWEVER

You rarely get caught, you'd have to get caught in the act or on some video surveillance before they can fine you. Do it in the middle of the night But yea, I believe that's how it is everywhere. If I need correction PLEASE correct me anyone

Knowledge is Power
- Pimpedoutgeese

Hi P.O.G.,
The only problem is they have your phone number which makes it easy for them to get ya.

Happy Hunting
charlie-d

it is not legal to put bandit signs up however the city turns their head on the weekends. One investor told us he left 1 bandit sign up for the week and it stayed there until he went to pick it up. He did receive a call from the city posing as a potential client asking lots of questions. The concern was how legitimate, honest and helpful he is to potential clients.

I've seen another investors sign up on a pole and it was there for at least 2 weeks - not sure if it still is. He's on my list of peoiple to call.

We get a great response from bandit signs (2-3 calls every week after putting up 17 signs.) Other business owners (REI & others) have good responses from bandit signs also.

In some communities you can get a permit to put signs the cost is $75 per sign.

Lea
SPR Property Solutions, LLC

We just got magic jack because it will send calls to our e-mail and record the phone number. We decided to do this after someone left an incomplete ph #. The downside of magic jack so I hear is they have poor customer service. The upside is that it makes it more difficult to be tracked down. Just google magic jack customer support for more info.

Lea
SPR Property Solutions, LLC

Hi Lea,
Thanks for that info. I am in MA. and the poles are actually private property. I know that cable companies have to pay rent for the use of the poles. I realize that most people don't understand that is still breaking the law even though it is no big deal. I imagine that if you do it a lot they will fine you.I'm just trying to find out what they say to people they catch.

Happy Hunting
charlie-d

Hi again Lea,
I get a newsletter, Windows Secrets, and they said that M.J. tracks everywhere you go and that you cannot uninstall it. I don't think I, personally, would want anything like that. It is just like Tivo that tells them your viewing habits. Just my opinion.

Happy Hunting
charlie-d

Thanks for the info. We went with magic jack because we weren't able to get local ph #'s from COA. There was no place local that did anything similar to COA. Magic jack comes with a 30 day trial if it doesn't work for you it can be returned.

Lea
SPR Property Solutions, LLC

Which is exactly what I was going to post. If you just use your 800 number it'll be a lil harder to track you without extra effort, which I'm sure they won't see it worth the "crime." I personally tried COA and I wasn't too sure if I liked it for the price but I did go over to Vistaprint and use there RingCentral 800 number and I was pleased with it and the cost. If you can fit it in your budget you should get an 800 number if you haven't already.

Knowledge is Power
- Pimpedoutgeese

Thanks for the info on Vistaprint Ring Central.

After the hurricanes here there was a high number of fly-by-nights who took advantage of a lot of people and skipped town. Many people here don't trust businesses with 800#'s.

It would be nice if magic jack could forward to COA lines.

Lea
SPR Property Solutions, LLC

If you have the signs that just stick into the ground those don't break any rules. Only the ones that are put up on telephone poles.

By the way, there is NO BETTER WAY to get your phone ringing than bandit signs. I use them every single day.

well what some great info, just a couple questions , what is COA or did I just miss that in the book? Magic jack how does that work and what is it?

Thanks for the info

Dean

Trust in the LORD with all you heart

Magic jack is a device that attaches to to your phone line & computer. Missed calls go directly to your e-mail where you can listen to the recorded messages and see the phone number. You can get majic jack at Walmart for $39 after that the charge is a $40 service fee, YEARLY. In some areas it doesn't work well and may interfere with faxes. If that is the case in your area you can return it for a full refund in 30 days.

COA is a phone service where you can have up to 10 extensions and can leave a recorded message for each extension. They have 800#'s and in some areas also have local phone numbers. The fee is $29.95 a month and a one time activation fee of $25.

Lea
SPR Property Solutions, LLC

Thanks cbrpower. That clears up part a of my question. Part b is what do they say when they catch you. Of course the people that I talked to have no idea what goes on at the other end.

Happy Hunting
charlie-d

Where do you recommend buying the signs? Do you make them your self or do you have a company do it. IF so where? cdrpower uses them everyday. What is the best verbage you used and what is the best information you can give someone just starting out?

Thanks for any and all your input/help.

FJ

I live outside the northwest side of Houston, Texas and here, it seems like all of the bandit signs on telephone posts were cut up. So then everyone started putting them on lathe type stakes or the wire stakes. But there's a catch, every time they mow the grass, all of the signs disapear. So to get the most exposure time, everyone waits until the grass is cut and the next day the signs pop up like weeds and stay there until the next mowing day.

EH

I know this post is in regards to bandit signs but I wanted to share a technique that I found more profiting than bandit signs.

I don't know about where you live but here in NJ we have add signs on our shopping carts in grocery stores. It is a little square sign that hangs on the front of the child seat in the cart. Putting an add on there is like having a conversation with a seller. As they are shopping the add is staring them in the face the whole time.

Here is an add that works...

Sell your house to a friendly Investor!
Any condition or situation.
Call today and get an offer tomorrow!
(phone number)xxx-xxx-xxxx

I stopped using bandit signs because they kept disappearing which was a waste of money for me.

Flora Jean, we have 2 signs that say 1) We buy houses, ph#, no equity no problem 2) Avoid Foreclosure, ph #, We Have Solutions. Denny ordered them from banditsigns.com. We were so eager to get signs up once we decided to go with bandit signs that we picked blank ones up at Walmart & Staples and hand wrote them ourselves. The price is better from banditsign.com with pre-written signs.

Earl Hughes, I wish our town did that all the time - usually they'll take them down when they see them.

Carol, great idea about signs on grocery carts. I'll keep this in mind for future marketing ideas, thank you. When we told another investor about a high number of our signs being stolen in 1 weekend he suggested putting them in different locations each weekend - that worked last time - we'll see how this weekend goes, tomorrow. (out of 24 signs total we are down to 5.) Calls decreased with fewer signs. Last weekend we put up our last 5 and got no calls. I'm hoping our placement is better this time. Last weekend was the 1st time we started moving them and none were stolen.

Lea
SPR Property Solutions, LLC

Another idea for bandit sign placement is near a vacant house. Many towns have a vacant house that has become a town landmark. Been vacant a long time and no one really has claimed ownership. Try placing your bandit sign in front of a vacant property. Most of the time the township will leave these alone thinking that you are the new Investor of the property. This works especially well with bank owned properties since they have so many right now they really have no knowledge of what goes on with the property and the company that does the maintenance will assume the sign again is from a new investor. They will most likely go around it when they mow the grass.

By placing the sign in front of a vacant you are going to get the message across more effectively. People will think that you truly are buying houses since they will assume you have purchased the vacant.

Again thinking outside the box!

Thank you for the information. It is very helpful. All these ideas are good to know. Do you have an 800# are you using your own for now?

That is another good idea.

We placed bandit signs at intersections on heavily traveled roads and will certainly do this again, 1 road attracted a lot of calls from people in that neighborhood but the sign was stolen. Being new at this bandit sign thing we thought maybe we'd get lucky next time and tried it again but it was stolen again. So on Friday we tried another strategy, Denny found a map of pre-foreclosued properties. There were some areas that have big clusters of pre-foreclosed homes so we put the 5 signs we have left in those areas.

I created a word doc check off list for each sign so we remember where we put all the signs (will be helpful when we put out 20 next week.) I add notes when I see good locations in our travels for the next time. Denny always adds extra locations to our list in case we get there and can't put a sign out (i.e., not an easy place to park and saftely avoid fast moving cars, etc.)

On the check list I include, time it takes (to track our hourly rate for bandit signs later) & miles we travel.

Lea
SPR Property Solutions, LLC

I bought bandit signs that say
WE BUY HOUSES
AVOID FORECLOSURE
MY PHONE #
Free Recorded Message 24 Hrs

I am not getting many calls and one thing that I realized , is that the more text you put on your sign, the smaller it is. I know that it is obvious but the point is to keep it simple like this:

WE BUY HOUSES
YOUR PHONE #

That's all it needs to say. This will make your text much more bigger so people in cars can read it 100 feet away. This is the route that I will go on next time and you should too. I know that other investors signs may have the same thing so be different and use different colors. One guy around here uses the yellow and black type, I wanted to be different so I use white back ground and blue text. Hope that helps!

I also at first when with size 12 X 18 and my signs were small. Unless that's the only size you can afford, spend the extra bucks on the bigger one.

Hey Carol,

How much does it cost to put an ad on those shopping carts? Thanks! And congrats on the Send Me Away contest!

Vincent

Hi all,

I've had magic jack since they introduced it a couple years ago. Can't beat the price, $20 per year. At first, quality was very poor. Now it works just fine for me I believe the upgrades made the difference. Also, I have successfully uninstalled and reinstalled the software without any problems. Additionally, it's true that you get the VM messages via email, Vonage does the same.

Here's a free suggestion for my DG Family...you might want to try www.K7.net because you get a free telephone number and free voicemail and VM's are emailed too. The only downside is that its a Washington area code (206) but if you use "forwarding" with a local or toll free number or actually live in the 206 area code then it will work out just fine!!!!

Just my 2 cents
Hope it helps,

Mr. Resourcefulness