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Dealing with cheap real estate agents

gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Recently bid on a real estate sign project for a commercial listing. Customer wanted a two-panel corner sign on posts, 8x4 full color, installed at the corner of a busy intersection, and gave me less than a week turn time. I quoted it on 1/2" signboard and factored in a high estimate on labor of five hours, and quoted $1900 for everything. Agent flipped out and said they had budgeted more like $500 because the property is "under a million dollars". Now it's down to attaching a banner to a sheet of plywood, and her partner is going to handle the install. I had already visited the site with my installer to mark and call in a utility locate, so it rapidly became a waste of my time. I look forward to seeing how it goes for them - digging holes around here ain't easy.

How do you handle real estate listing signs? Offer a professional sign package along with an el cheapo option, if you don't know what you're up against?
 
T

Turnergraphics

New Member
This question will get a lot of interest from fellow site members. All you can do is quote it and see what happens but it doesn't hurt to inform the customer of some of the overhead. I recently paid a guy $150 just to clean my gutters. It took him a little over an hour and he commented that I 'got him' because it took him extra time! Everything these days is outrageously expensive but everybody else is charging $100 to $200 per hour we have to do the same.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
I explained to her that the biggest portion of cost was the labor. I subcontract most of my installs and based it on two guys taking 3-5 hours, so I quoted the high end. I think she'll be in for DIY remorse after she sees what it takes just to dig the holes.
 
T

Turnergraphics

New Member
gnubler said:
I explained to her that the biggest portion of cost was the labor. I subcontract most of my installs and based it on two guys taking 3-5 hours, so I quoted the high end. I think she'll be in for DIY remorse after she sees what it takes just to dig the holes.
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I've had more than one quote for $400 just to dig holes. I finally found a local young man that does it for $50 for simple stuff.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Notarealsignguy said:
2 guys 3 to 5 hours to dig 3 holes and screw in 2 faces? Well that there is part of the problem. Ask yourself, if that was your employee and he left the shop to put this up at 7am and got back at 5:30 pm, would he still have a job?
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So you think I overbid it? I was going off another job we just did, a single 8x4 panel on two posts and it took us right around 3 hours (including travel time and picking up lumber/hardware along the way). So I added a bit to cover the extra labor & materials to do a corner sign.

I read the hole digging/auger thread with interest and have one of those on my shopping list.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
unclebun said:
They are getting banners now, aren't they?
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Yes, it was my suggestion. What I found slightly irritating is the customer said that based on her commission a sign like what she initially wanted "should only cost around $500." I guess in the future I'll just ask agents what their commission will be and base my prices on that. :p
 
chester215

chester215

Just call me Chester.
Dealing with Real Estate agents every day (we mainly do RE signs) I think I can say that they are like any other cross section of the population.
There are those that are cheap at one end of the spectrum and try to get down to a rock bottom price for a sign with diamonds and 24k gold on it, and there are those that have been around a while and understand the value of the signs, after quoting them for the first sign, never ask again about the price again.
One thing you have to be is FIRM on your pricing. I have nicely told some that if they want it cheaper than what we charge (for the same item), they will have to go somewhere else. One thing we will do is offer alternative material and mounting options if they suddenly realize that the sign costs more than what they thought it would.
Many real estate agents work for years at an office that pays for and handles the logistics of their signs.
Once they are out on their own it is like a teenager getting their first apartment, everything is more expensive than they thought and not quite as easy as it looks.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
CanuckSigns said:
Do yourself a huge favour, dump all real estate agents as customers, you will never be cheap or fast enough for them to be happy. In 27 years in business I can count on 1 hand the number of real estate agents who were willing to pay me my regular rate for work.
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I'm well familiar with them as a species of customer. I worked in commercial printing before getting into signs and there's no escaping their wrath of cheapness, and the impossible deadlines.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Hurry up and wait is kind of the nature of their business and shit rolls down hill. Some contractors can be the same way. If you have the available capacity to take on a few cheapies without losing out on the good paying work or going into overtime for it then why not?
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
We have quite a wide cross section of customers and the real estate people we have are great. As mentioned earlier, ya just have to either educate them as to why your prices are what they are..... or they can go elsewhere. Just had one in here this morning, dropped off a deposit and was just happy to hear when we could have it ready to go up.

Most likely, you're not gonna get rich off of real estate agents, but they are continuous work year round. We have about a dozen different companies and all we do is the commercial divisions. No residential sh!t, unless we get paid well for it. In most cases, they do their own installations. One yesterday, just ordered the signs and posts and after they got the price, they nixed the installation part and just ordered the signs and posts.

Ya gotta train 'em.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Good points, Gino. That's what I attempted to do after this customer was shocked by the cost. I don't know what she was expecting for $500, but it's ended up being a banner screwed onto a sheet of plywood. I think she'll get plenty of training after they spend two hours digging holes and running into small boulders, which is how the ground is here.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
$500 is too low for two 4x8's.

On the flip side.. I can install that by myself in about an hour and half. Takes me 45 min to do one 4'x8'. That doesn't include getting the wood... I load up my truck with posts and 2x4's a few times a year and pre-paint them.

That auger Moze shared makes installing these a million times easier. I also started assembling on the ground and then lifting up and that goes faster.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Texas_Signmaker said:
$500 is too low for two 4x8's.

On the flip side.. I can install that by myself in about an hour and half. Takes me 45 min to do one 4'x8'. That doesn't include getting the wood... I load up my truck with posts and 2x4's a few times a year and pre-paint them.

That auger Moze shared makes installing these a million times easier. I also started assembling on the ground and then lifting up and that goes faster.
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How in the world else would you do it ?? Ya left out putting a piece of cardboard on the ground first so ya don't scratch the sign and you also put small pieces of old Cor-X near each hole and pile the dirt up on that. When ya leave, there's really no trace of you having been there. Learn to clean up properly. Be efficient and this is why they'll use you rather than the schmuck down the road who's only cheaper.
 
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