Real Estate Marketing?

This is an old article from the Union Tribune that I just ran across, but it was so funny I wanted to share, and it didn't appear to be in the search engines.

I went to Florida recently and visited all the main beaches from Boca Raton on up, back to Jacksonville...trying to decide if I'd like to live there. One of the odd things I noticed was the signage on their conversions and preconstruction condos.

All the condo-hotels in Daytona had these huge things like sheets...sort of like what you see at a rock concert when a group of groupies holds up a sheet that says "WE LOVE YOU DAVY JONES!" or similar. These "sheets" were really really big...stretched across 5 or 10 balconies, and they all said CONDOS FOR SALE!

So this city, wherever El Cajun is, (near San Diego?) has LIVE signs for selling condos. I just think it's a hoot....

Developers challenge ban on spinning ads
By Liz NeelyUNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 13, 2006

EL CAJON – City leaders have rolled out the welcome mat for condominium converters, but they draw the line at plunking a person on the sidewalk with a giant arrow to advertise the properties. Sign spinners, logo flags, banners and similar attention-grabbing tactics fall into the category of temporary signs. They're illegal here, outlawed decades ago along with inflatable objects, streamers and bunting as a way to control the myriad signs cluttering up the city.

El Cajon's condominium conversion task force, made up almost entirely of people connected to the business, is asking the City Council to ease the restrictions. There's a glut of conversions on the market and converters say they need sign spinners, or “human directionals” as they like to call them, to help draw potential buyers.

The spinners wouldn't be so popular among converters and other businesses if they weren't effective, said Greg Neville, president of Pacific Land Group and a member of the task force.
Rules under review El Cajon bans the use of temporary signs with some exceptions.

Condominium converters are asking the city to change the rules to allow for sign spinners, logo flags and other advertising methods. The City Council will discuss the issue April 25. The council meets at 3 p.m. at City Hall, 200 E. Main St. Neville's company is involved in three conversion projects in El Cajon as well as others around the county. He said potential buyers often say the sign spinners lured them in.

Spinners like those who work for San Diego-based Aarrow Advertising wear uniforms and are encouraged to smile and make eye contact with passersby, said Max Durovic, who started the sign-spinning company in 2002.

“Our goal is to really work with towns and cities to make sure this doesn't become a visual nuisance,” Durovic said.

His company pays sign spinners $8 to $20 an hour to work tricks they've learned from “spinstructors.” Despite El Cajon's ban on spinners, Durovic's people still hold practice sessions in the city, perfecting moves like the “helicopter spin” or the “Bruce Lee spin.”

Durovic said El Cajon's limits are hurting his business.

The council will discuss the issue April 25. But there's wariness among some city officials who remember the contentious debate surrounding the city's overhaul of its sign ordinance in the late 1970s.

“What most people don't understand is if you change the sign ordinance you can't restrict (the changes) to one group,” Councilman Dick Ramos said.

Before the sign ordinance was changed, there were no limits on temporary or permanent signs in El Cajon. Businesses were required to get permits for permanent signs, but there were no rules about the size, height or number of signs allowed. There were neon signs, rooftop signs and rotating signs, some trimmed with flashing lights.

“It was terrible, absolutely terrible,” Ramos said.

Limits were proposed by the local chamber of commerce and city officials because the city “was starting to look like Las Vegas,” said Community Development Director Jim Griffin.
The issue was contentious among business owners, who didn't like the new restrictions. As a compromise, businesses with the most expensive signs were given more than a decade to comply, Griffin said. But temporary signs were no longer allowed.

There are some exceptions. Newly opened businesses can display temporary signs for up to 30 days. And within the past eight years, the city has allowed temporary signs for about two weeks around certain holidays. Businesses can also get permission to display them for two weeks twice a year for a sale or other event, Griffin said.

These days a number of converters and other businesses want a little leeway. They complain that several businesses break the rules, often planting sign spinners on busy streets, and that the city selectively enforces the law.

Griffin said the city has received several complaints about spinners. It has been difficult for the city to crack down on them because the spinners work weekends, when there's no code enforcement officer on duty. A part-time person is expected to start patrolling on weekends this month, he said.

Converters say they want the city to immediately suspend the rules about temporary signs for at least six months and then consider a permanent change, specifically for real estate signs. The changes are especially needed now, they say, as sales of condo conversions have slowed throughout San Diego County.

“Six months ago to a year ago all you had to do was put a sign up on a project and (condos) would sell,” said Ron Pennock, chairman of the East County Construction Council and head of the task force.

But now there's a larger inventory of conversions and the market is flattening, Pennock said, “so we need to focus our attention on putting buyers into these units.” Elected leaders here have encouraged converters to bring their projects to El Cajon, approving more than 2,946 units as of April 1. Council members say they help boost property tax revenue and will eventually help change the demographics here, where apartments outnumber houses.

The officials say they have some concerns about changing the sign ordinance, but they want to be business-friendly.

“We have a mutual interest in bringing homeowners to the valley,” Mayor Mark Lewis said, adding that he would support a pilot program to monitor the use of temporary signs and whether they make a difference in sales.

“We need to do what we can to work with them to help them succeed,” Councilwoman Jillian Hanson-Cox said.

But she and others are concerned about sign spinners distracting drivers, dropping signs or blocking the path of pedestrians. If the ordinance changes, they acknowledge, the city won't be able to limit which companies spin here or which businesses are allowed to employ them.

“In my opinion, once you open the door it's going to be very difficult to return to where we are today,” Griffin said.

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Liz Neely: (619) 593-4961; liz.neely@uniontrib.com