Not seeing so many signs of real-estate activity in Houston lately? Swamplot’s Montrose correspondent says that might be because the Houston Association of Realtors has been telling its members that city officials have been handing out fines to agents who’ve placed their signs in the public right-of-way:
. . . the word is out and there are very few signs out on major streets on sundays. its really odd— the name brand real estate companies have been cracking down on their agents. When you do see a misplaced sign, its usually a listing that has been on the market for a fairly long time or there is an “off brand” real estate company. . . .
The response has been to put up generic open house signs for cover. Makes it harder to identify the perpetrator.
How long has this been going on?
I started seeing sign changes in the last couple of weeks. There was a trend toward people using open house signs pre-printed with their name. That has stopped. For awhile I thought no one was doing open houses because it was just too hot. . . . . As the photos show, the for sale signs are moving off city property too.
And where are those signs going?
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All of them are “house side” of the sidewalk which is theoretically not a public easement. Even though the public easement does extend a small distance on the house side of the sidewalk. The yellow house sign is virtually invisible because the fence goes to the sidewalk. The enforcement of the city ordinance makes things look incredibly odd not to mention hard to find. . . .
Getting on the wrong side of the law is not cheap either. Try fines ranging from $300 [to] over $500 per sign per day assessed on realtors .. ahem.. scofflaws for having the temerity to hold an Open House. You can run a red light and take out a couple of cars and the fine isn’t that high.
Photos: Swamplot inbox
I think it is great that the signs are backed off. Isn’t like you can’t find the listed property with GPS and maps.
It’s not a conspiracy against the realtors, but an easy money making scheme for the city. City officials don’t even have to get out of their cars to get the name & contact information for the offenders. At $300-500 an offense, I don’t blame them. Expect more of this type of action as tax revenues decrease. City inspectors are already cracking down more on permit violations.
The weird part: Why now?
The city could have made a killing just a few years back before the downturn.
My dad stopped using them altogether, he thinks they are tacky and tasteless, quite useless thanks to MLS.
So I have to mow grass on the city row in front of my house but can’t use it for a temporary sign? That’s not very nice.
Aren’t things hard enough right now for residential brokers? This is just salt in the wound.
Some would say what goes around, comes around and years ago when the city was cracking down on the apartment locators of course the realtors loved it. Mainly because many of the realtors were beginning to do apartment locating but weren’t allowed by their brokers to put up the “bandit signs” as they were called.
The ordinance has always been a “sure thing” in “tough times” and the city of course loves the money particularly when there’s less of it coming in which is always when they start enforcing ordinances.
When we sold our last house in 2003, the City merely put a sticker on the sign and then hauled it off a few days later. About time they started enforcing the law.
I’ve been known to follow the homebuilder sign guys and take down their signs on the ROW. Sold a pile of signs back to a guy one day, and convinced him to not put them on our block. Those signs are also a great source of corroplast for use as target backers at the rifle range. Political signs work well too.
Some would say what goes around, comes around and years ago when the city was cracking down on the apartment locators of course the realtors loved it.
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Why would realtors care about apartment locators advertising? It’s not like their business interferes with the average agent. Most agents don’t do much leasing at all and the leases they do end up drawing up are rarely with large apartment complexes.
You seem to love a good conspiracy so I guess it’s a convenient theory.
This is nothing more than a cash grab for the city.
The agents this is effecting for the most part are putting up temporary signs for Sunday open houses. These signs are typically pretty expensive so they are picked up after the open house. I fail to see how this is a big deal to the city.
This law is a state law. You can thank the very people we elect to say bandits signs are bad and make our fair state’s highways and byways ugly from the bandit signs. Not that the billboards make anything ugly. They also so graciuosly decided that the law does not apply to people seeking a political office (themselves). So the election signs can go everywhere. Sweet for them. If a realtor uses the public easement to get their job done and does not leave the signs out after the open house what harm is there. Those signs are not cheap, and most realtors want the neighborhoods to look good not trashy.
Why would realtors care about apartment locators advertising? It’s not like their business interferes with the average agent. Most agents don’t do much leasing at all and the leases they do end up drawing up are rarely with large apartment complexes.
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Well when the well runs dry you look for another well and when the market isn’t good, snooty realtors often become sleazy apartment locators real quick. On the sly so to speak but they still will do it. And over the course of 20 plus years I’ve watched quite a few of them do it.
I’m pretty sure the “bandit signs” law DOES apply to political ads. You are not allowed to post signs in a public right-of-way. Period. Furthermore, the city allows ANYONE to pull them up. There are plenty of volunteer neighborhood groups that do just that.
And so far as I know, (City of) Houston doesn’t allow new billboards as of some time in the 90s. The old ones are grandfathered in, but only until their cost is fully depreciated (20 years or something like that.) After that, they have to come down.
Corrections are welcome, but this is what I remember from when I worked at the City some years ago.
And I do agree it’s irritating to have to maintain grass that’s technically not mine, but at least we don’t have snow and ice we’d be obligated to clear from city sidewalks in front of our property. That’s the case throughout the North.
I have had a couple real estate signs (METAL for sale signs, not open house) picked up in the Heights. I contacted the sign enforcement and have yet to get a call back.