Installing 4x4 realtor signpost

[Cto]

Hi Guys. Hope everyone is well.

Curious if anyone is installing 4x4 posts for real estate agents. Looking to better understand the model and any best practices you have learned along the way. Thx

 

[BobM]

If it's real estate, Quick, cheap, easily removable. Dig a 2' hole, put the post in, pack rocks around it and cover with dirt packed in. They won't want to pay much more than "15" minutes. Oh ya, 15 minutes notice and it's "only 20 miles one way".

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Make little shelves out of wood with L brackets and line them up at the bottom of where the sign should go. When you lift the sign up, it will hold it in place perfectly level. No second person needed.

Paint your fasteners for that Texas quality finished look

 

[d fleming]

Most real estate agents run away when I won't race to the bottom of the barrel with a less experienced sticker jockey. Some come back after trying to do it themselves or having their teenager do it seven kinds of wrong.

 

[Bradley Signs]

Years back C21 in Dallas offered me the whole realty sign thing.... make them, install, could be anytime of day... take them down, store them.... Like Bob said, they wanted it yesterday. After a bit of math, I turned it down.
Wasn't worth the time or fuel money.
I do sign work for Commercial Real Estate Companies now..... so much easier and it pays so much better.
If you must, make it as easy as possible and hope it's not rocky soil, or your 15 minutes of fame will blow away in the wind. I dig 16" with a bag of dry concrete.
The moisture in the ground hardens it enough to hold, but lets you get it out of the ground easily, and breaks up with a big hammer easily if it sticks to the post. I tried sand and it's OK in an area where there is no wind.....

 

[Bradley Signs]

Make little shelves out of wood with L brackets and line them up at the bottom of where the sign should go. When you lift the sign up, it will hold it in place perfectly level. No second person needed.

Make little shelves out of wood with L brackets and line them up at the bottom of where the sign should go. When you lift the sign up, it will hold it in place perfectly level. No second person needed.


I just use a couple drywall screws into the poles. I use them for everything. Built my shop with them. I measure down from the top of the pole 4 feet or whatever, drive the screw in, then the same on the other side, and sit the sign on them, put a screw in the top corner, then level and attach and then take the screws out when I finish, or use them to fasten the sign.
I have switched everything over to MDO... much easier to work with than the 1/8" aluminum that rips off the screws in a good Texas Wind.
Then either put a vinyl 2" cut circle over the heads, or paint them.

Paint your fasteners for that Texas quality finished look

Paint your fasteners for that Texas quality finished look

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Well, I do mostly 4x8's and 8'x8's and I all for saving my back from lifting MDO after I labored digging holes in the heat. If you got back issues MDO is a bear.

 

[kcollinsdesign]

Make little shelves out of wood with L brackets and line them up at the bottom of where the sign should go. When you lift the sign up, it will hold it in place perfectly level. No second person needed.

Paint your fasteners for that Texas quality finished look

Huh? Just use your nog to figure out where the screw goes in one of the top corners, then swing up the other side until it is level.

 

[Gino]

Huh? Just use your nog to figure out where the screw goes in one of the top corners, then swing up the other side until it is level.

That's pretty much what I've done my whole life, but now that I'm getting older and still doing these things, I'm tending to take some of these easy gimmicks and use them also the last year or two. Slinging a 4x8'x3/4" MDO board ain't all that easy anymore.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Huh? Just use your nog to figure out where the screw goes in one of the top corners, then swing up the other side until it is level.

I used to do that until one day it was windy and a gust took ripped the sign off the post at the corner while I was leveling it. My method keeps it secure until you get some screws in it. We have strong wind here in Texas so ya gotta work around it.

 

[Billct2]

If you're talking about residential installs good luck. There's a company here that specializes in it, they burn through a lot of installers because the money sucks. They hire guys with a pick up and a strong back. You see lots of leaning posts. Everyone does Real Estate when they're starting out and soon realizes it ain't worth it. Now commercial realyors can be another story, at least some of them are willing to pay for good work and it can lead to referrals

 

[netsol]

That's pretty much what I've done my whole life, but now that I'm getting older and still doing these things, I'm tending to take some of these easy gimmicks and use them also the last year or two. Slinging a 4x8'x3/4" MDO board ain't all that easy anymore.

best thing you can do for yourself

https://www.harborfreight.com/gas-powered-earth-auger-56257.html

we have 6" 8" & 12" auger bit

get a harbor freight 30% off coupon

i think they lie about one man operation, since our family curse is anywhere you dig you will find a big rock like the one roy rogers would hide behind and shoot

 

[TammieH]

back in the 70's & 80's me and one coworker put up too many MDO signs, the 2 of us would install 4' x 4's up to 10' x 24's
by ourselves and a crew of 3 would go out installing 16' x 48' billboards. Then things change when mom's and dad's got on the local city and township boards, it was a blessing really ...Builders, Developers and Real Estate agents would have us install signs in the middle of the roads if they thought that they could get away with it or on top of other signs ;p

Fun Times ;p

 

[John Miller]

Make little shelves out of wood with L brackets and line them up at the bottom of where the sign should go. When you lift the sign up, it will hold it in place perfectly level. No second person needed.

Paint your fasteners for that Texas quality finished look

Rather than the whole wood block thing, Just put a C-clamp on one post, put a level across and put another C-clamp on the other post. Use the clamps to rest the sign on.

 

[Glavin_ID]

We have three full time real estate only install crews. We have a huge residential account that only works out for us because we have been doing it for so many years we have it down to a science. We pay the installers (1099 subs) per install (single 4x4 posts with a cross piece). The more work they do, the more they get paid. It took us many years of losing money to figure it all out but now we have so much volume and such a good system that it does very well. I can say, the only reason it works is because the customer (biggest real estate company in our region by far) doesn't let the agents have any contact with us or our guys. We have a whole intranet system for order entry that is controlled by their office managers, set lead times, and very clear expectations. The parent company also pays for it all which helps a ton.

On the commercial side, we also do a lot. We dedicate one day a week for one resi crew to do commercial. Those jobs are paid by the hour and charged by the hour. It is our A1 crew so we have full trust in them to do the work quickly and correctly. They have a system where they assemble the sign on the ground and drop it in the holes after they are dug. They have a pole that is marked that they lay down to know where to dig the holes (for 4x4's and 4x8's). After many years of losing money quoting jobs we decided to go hourly. If the customer wants a quote I quote it way high assuming the worst and usually don't get them. There are so many unknowns when digging around here, a job you thought was going to take 15 minutes could take an hour and vice versa. We are lucky to have some large customers who trust us to do the right thing and we are always upfront with them on the why and how.

That said, all real estate accounts are done on our terms. We get a few agencies that come to us every year because they don't like their guy but they don't end up going with us because they don't want to meet our terms. We have a very good system that works extremely well if the customer wants to buy in. The key term to pretty much all of this is that we very rarely interact with agents. This is a complete generalization and I know it's not fair to many good people but real estate agents are the worst. They are usually arrogant, demanding, and unrealistic. We deal mostly with admin folks and it works great.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

"...real estate agents are the worst. They are usually arrogant, demanding, and unrealistic..."

YES! I always cringed when I saw those orders, because I knew it was a money loser unless there's a system in place that, basically, says "take it or leave it."
I remember palm readers being the same way.

 

[chester215]

I don't know if we are the company referred to in other posts but we are probably one of the largest real estate sign installation companies in the country ( at least in New England). We have 13 full time year-round drivers and an office staff of three covering all of CT & RI and parts of MA.
We have been asked to go into the NY area by our customers which would be very profitable but p/u trucks are not allowed on the parkways- passenger cars only.
I also have a family member that has his own company installing RE signs in PA covering Eastern PA & NJ.
We have developed a good crew over the years and can pay well for those that are willing to work.
Our employees have been here an average of 5-10 years. 4 drivers have been here 15+ years.
A couple of years ago, one of our drivers made over $80k working probably every day for a couple of months in the summer when we are the busiest.
Some areas are more profitable than others, densely populated areas are the best.

If you are starting fresh and are looking for a computer program to take, process & bill sign orders there is a program called up sign down managed by some programmers in CA. We use it for one of the areas we work in and it works, it does the basic function of taking and processing orders but it is also lacking in the area of inventory control. It does send an email and picture of the completed transaction to the customer which is nice.

Anyway, if you have a good relationship with the realtor and want to give it a shot it could add to your bottom line.

 

[Z SIGNS]

I'm old and lazy. We do real estate and any temporary signs this way.
Attach the sign to a sq pvc post or posts.Pound a u channel in the ground and slip the sign and post over the u channel.Drill a hole into the pvc column and shoot some expanding foam into it.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

something about the expanding foam bothers me... seems like a bag full of chemicals being thrown in the ground.

 

[Cto]

I don't know if we are the company referred to in other posts but we are probably one of the largest real estate sign installation companies in the country ( at least in New England). We have 13 full time year-round drivers and an office staff of three covering all of CT & RI and parts of MA.
We have been asked to go into the NY area by our customers which would be very profitable but p/u trucks are not allowed on the parkways- passenger cars only.
I also have a family member that has his own company installing RE signs in PA covering Eastern PA & NJ.
We have developed a good crew over the years and can pay well for those that are willing to work.
Our employees have been here an average of 5-10 years. 4 drivers have been here 15+ years.
A couple of years ago, one of our drivers made over $80k working probably every day for a couple of months in the summer when we are the busiest.
Some areas are more profitable than others, densely populated areas are the best.

If you are starting fresh and are looking for a computer program to take, process & bill sign orders there is a program called up sign down managed by some programmers in CA. We use it for one of the areas we work in and it works, it does the basic function of taking and processing orders but it is also lacking in the area of inventory control. It does send an email and picture of the completed transaction to the customer which is nice.

Anyway, if you have a good relationship with the realtor and want to give it a shot it could add to your bottom line.