News
-
In praise of the humble signboard
June 7th, 2010
Letting and estate agent boards are really important in maximising the number of people who know that your property is on the market. Even in this age of the internet, e-mail and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the humble signboard remains a vital tool for your agent to promote your Durham property.
You would be amazed how often we get a call from someone saying that they are watching our contractor putting the sign up and that they know their friend has been wanting to move to their street for ages. Equally, once the board is up, we get a steady steam of enquiries from passers-by. Surprisingly, this applies as much to cul-de-sacs and other quiet roads as it does to busy streets.
Some owners express the concern that having a signboard invites burglars. This is not our experience. Why should it be? If the house remains occupied then it is surely no more vulnerable than it was before the sign went up? If it’s empty, then what is there to steal?
Recent months have seen some criticism of “To Let” boards in the local press and there is some justification for this. But the law is very clear and it is notable that it’s only the cowboys who leave their boards up for ages. The professional Durham estate agents take care to follow the rules and would be delighted if the local authority took their responsibilities seriously and actually prosecuted those who seem to think it’s OK to leave their boards up indefinitely.
Our experience suggests that about 20% of our enquiries come from people seeing a board at a Durham property. This is not high enough to market solely via a signboard, but it does mean that owners without a board are reducing their chances of a let by one fifth. Now where’s the point in that?
Leave a Reply
