Real estate signboard cost: what a board price includes, and how to compare quotes

A real estate signboard's cost depends on what the quote covers: print, substrate, size, artwork, frame, installation, removal, stickers and storage. From Proof & Print, five double-sided 900 x 600mm corflute boards are $315 inc GST for the printed boards; frames, stakes and installation are arranged through your consultant. Compare quotes as a cost per listing.

Ask what a real estate signboard costs and you will find published figures that disagree with each other by several hundred dollars. Consumer guides such as Urban.com.au quote ranges, but the ranges rarely say what they include. That is the real issue. A "board" can mean a printed sheet of corflute, or it can mean a photo board on a frame, installed, maintained, stickered "Sold" and removed. Those are very different prices.

This guide breaks a board price into its parts, explains the hire and buy models in general terms, and shows how to compare quotes on a fair basis per listing.

What does a real estate signboard price include?

A real estate signboard price can include print, substrate, size, artwork, a frame or posts, installation, removal, stickers and riders, relocations and repairs, and storage. When you compare quotes, check which of these each one covers.

Print. The printed face or faces. Single-sided boards suit a fence or wall; double-sided boards suit a corner block or a board set at right angles to the street, where it is read in both directions. A full-colour photo board usually costs about the same to print as a template board of the same size, but it needs more artwork time and a high-resolution photo.

Substrate. What the face is printed on. Corflute (fluted polypropylene) is light, cheap and weather resistant, and is the usual choice for a campaign that lasts weeks. Aluminium composite (ACM) is rigid and lasts years, and suits prestige listings or reusable frames with swappable faces. Our corflute vs ACM guide covers the trade-offs.

Size. Larger boards cost more to print and need a sturdier frame. Common sizes and their face areas are in our signboard sizes guide.

Artwork. Placing the photo, agent details, agency branding and listing text into a template. Some suppliers include this, some charge per design, and some charge again for every change.

Frame or posts. The structure the face is fixed to: a timber or steel frame, a pair of posts, or a fence mount.

Installation. Travel, labour and fitting the board on site. Driving posts into the ground raises a safety question: underground services. Before You Dig Australia runs the free referral service for locating them.

Removal. Taking the board down after settlement or withdrawal. Some councils limit how long a board can stay up after a sale, so prompt removal matters. Our guide to real estate sign rules in NSW, Victoria and Queensland covers what we found, and your council has the current rules.

Stickers and riders. "Sold", "Under contract", "Auction this Saturday" and "Open home" stickers, and any rider panels added to the board. Often priced per sticker plus a visit to apply it.

Relocations and repairs. Moving the board for a fence repair, refitting after wind damage or vandalism, or replacing a defaced face.

Storage. If the agency or supplier keeps frames and reusable faces between listings, somebody pays for the space.

A quote that looks low may cover only the first two or three items. A quote that looks high may include all of them.

Should an agency hire or buy real estate signboards?

Hiring suits agencies that want one predictable charge per listing and no frames to store; buying suits agencies with steady listing volume, storage space and a reliable way to install and remove boards. There are two broad ways agencies pay for boards. Most real arrangements sit somewhere between them.

Hire (the per-listing model). A sign supplier owns the frames and charges one price per listing, typically covering the printed face, the frame for a period, installation and removal. Extras such as stickers, relocations and extended campaigns are usually added per item.

• Suits: agencies that want a simple, predictable charge per listing to pass into the vendor's marketing schedule, and no frames to store.
• Watch for: what happens if the campaign runs longer than the included period, the cost of each return visit, and whether the printed face is yours to keep or reuse.

Buy (the own-the-hardware model). The agency buys printed faces, and often its own frames, and arranges installation and removal separately or with its own staff.

• Suits: agencies with steady listing volume, somewhere to store frames, and a reliable way to install and remove boards.
• Watch for: the true cost of staff time and travel, safety and insurance if staff install boards themselves, wear and tear on frames, and storage.

The printed face is usually the smaller part of the total. Labour, travel and return visits drive most of the difference between the two models.

Who pays for a real estate signboard?

In many Australian campaigns the vendor pays for the board through vendor-paid advertising (VPA), set out in the marketing schedule they sign with the agency. Practice varies between agencies and states, and vendors increasingly ask what each line covers, as threads such as this CHOICE Community discussion show.

Whoever pays, itemising the board helps. A vendor who can see "printed photo board, double-sided, installed, removed after settlement, two stickers" is less likely to query the line than one who sees "signboard" with a single figure. The ACL applies to how marketing is described to vendors as much as to buyers; the ACCC's real estate guidance is a useful starting point. This is general information, not legal advice.

How do you compare real estate signboard quotes per listing?

Put every real estate signboard quote on the same basis, then divide the total by the number of listings it covers.

1. Fix the specification. Same size, same number of printed sides, same substrate (for example, 3mm corflute), same artwork (photo or template).
2. Fix the campaign. Assume a typical campaign length for your market, plus a realistic number of sticker visits (say one "Auction" sticker and one "Sold").
3. List every item separately. Print, substrate, artwork, frame, install, removal, stickers, return visits, storage.
4. Divide by listings. If you buy faces in batches, divide the batch price by the number of listings it covers. If frames are bought, spread their cost over their expected life.
5. Add your own costs. For a buy model, include staff time and travel to install, check and remove boards.
6. Check the exceptions. Rural or outer-suburban properties, extended campaigns and damage replacement are where quotes differ most.

The result is a cost per listing you can compare across suppliers and present to a vendor with confidence.

How much do corflute real estate signboards cost?

Proof & Print corflute signboards cost $315 inc GST for five double-sided 900 x 600mm boards and $410 for ten, with metro delivery included. We print corflute signboards on 3mm corflute with eyelets in each corner. Prices are inc GST with metro delivery included, and every board is checked by a person against our proof checklist, including photo resolution at the printed size, and we flag agent licence details that look missing.

Larger quantities bring the cost per board down: 25 double-sided 900 x 600mm boards are $765, and 50 are $1,470. Ordering ten boards rather than five costs only a little more in total, so per board the price drops to a little over half. Boards usually take 3 to 5 business days after proof approval.

These prices are for the printed boards. Frames, stakes and installation are arranged through your consultant, so ask for those to be itemised in your quote alongside the print.

How do you get a fair real estate signboard price?

To get a fair real estate signboard price, itemise what each quote covers, convert it to a cost per listing, and show the vendor what they are paying for. The lowest headline board price is often the least complete. See our corflute signboards for sizes and options, or The Listing Campaign, which combines five 1200 x 900mm double-sided boards, 250 listing brochures and 500 just-listed cards for $1,695 inc GST ($1,845 bought separately). More on how we work with agencies is on our real estate page.