Best Real Estate Signs 2017 – Dee Sign vs Oakley Signs vs Build A Sign

Real estate signs are essential for advertising your open houses, listings, and building brand awareness. We looked at the most popular options and rising stars and decided to review Dee Sign, Oakley, and Build a Sign. These companies covered the range for agents and brokerages in terms of pricing and features. Read on for our comparison and review of these three options, as well as our top recommendations.

Best Real Estate Signs for Real Estate Agents and Brokerages: Dee Sign

We chose Dee Sign as the best real estate signs company for agents and brokerages because of their multiple shipping locations, low pricing and wide variety of sign materials to choose from. They’ve also been in business for more than 40 years and are still family owned and operated.

	Dee Sign	Oakley	Build a Sign
Price per unit for 10 yard sign panels 30x24 (aluminum, double sided) Learn More	$61.75 (slightly thicker material + custom design included)	$39.93	$40.69
Price per unit for 10 Yard sign posts (colonial post 30” aluminum) Learn More	$62.10	$89.42	$66.25
Variety of sign materials available Learn More	9 different materials: Works for a variety of climates and aesthetics	7 different materials: Works for a variety of climates and aesthetics	Aluminum and corrugated plastic only
Where do they ship from? Learn More	Southern California & Ohio	Des Plaines, Illinois	Austin, Texas
Turnaround Time Learn More	5-10 working days, most ship in 5	Ships no later than 6 business days for custom order	2-12 business days
Custom sign creation Learn More	Basic online designer + can upload artwork	Online designer+ can upload artwork	Online designer +can upload artwork
Franchises supported Learn More	Most large franchises & many smaller brokerages (for full list click here)	Most large franchises & many smaller brokerages (for full list click here)	Century 21, RE/Max, Keller Williams, ERA, Coldwell Banker, Exit, Realty Executives, Berkshire Hathaway, Prudential
Reviews Learn More	4.5 stars on Activerain 2.5 stars on Yelp	3.8 stars on Activerain	4.7 stars on Google Trusted Stores
Customer Support Learn More	Great Phone and email	Great Phone and email	Great Phone and email
	www.DeeSign.com	www.OakleySign.com	www.BuildaSign.com

Best Overall Real Estate Signs for Realtors: Dee Sign

For 45 years Dee Sign has been doing one thing and one thing only: Manufacturing, printing, and selling real estate signs. As a result they have an incredible variety of materials and sign options available specifically designed for real estate agents and brokerages. We chose Dee Sign as the best option for Realtors for the following reasons:

Low Pricing

Dee Sign has great pricing for the majority of the sign products they offer. They are generally cheaper or comparable to any sign company we looked at. When they do come in slightly more expensive as they do with the aluminum sign panels mentioned in the table, it’s because they offer a higher quality product and include design services in the price.

Multiple Shipping Locations

Dee Sign was the only real estate sign company we looked at that has multiple shipping locations. They have several facilities on the West Coast, as well as a facility in Ohio. That means faster shipping times for the West Coast as well as the Midwest and East Coast.

Wide Variety of Sign Materials

Dee Sign offers real estate signs in a dizzying array of materials to suit every budget and every area of the country. This is important as heat, rain, cold, and snow can all affect real estate signs differently. Aesthetics and longevity also play a role here.

Check out their video on which sign materials work best for each region below. Very useful!

They also have other great videos explaining installation and other helpful topics on their website.

Family Owned and Operated

Even though they are one of the largest players in the real estate sign market, Dee Sign is still a family owned and operated company. If this matters to you (it should) Dee Sign should be your first call.

Drawbacks

The only real drawback we found with Dee Sign is that some of their stock sign designs for franchises look a little bit dated. While you can very easily get a professional looking custom design on Fiverr or 99 Designs, some agents just want something ready to go. To see what we’re talking about, here is an example of a stock design for Keller Williams from Dee Sign:

However, it seems design quality can be hit or miss. For example, their sign templates for Sotheby’s look great:

While their franchise templates seemed to be hit or miss, their custom signs look great. Here’s an example:

Visit Dee Sign

Best Real Estate Signs for Variety of Franchises Supported: Oakley Signs

Oakley Signs offered templates for the largest number of real estate brokerages and franchises. For many Realtors, a simple template will get the job done. If you just want quick, signs that already fit your brand, then Oakley Signs may be right for you.

Relatively Affordable Pricing

Oakley came at a lower price than the other two companies for sign panels at $39.93 and feather flags at $104, but at $89.42 their colonial posts were significantly more expensive than either Dee Sign or Build A Sign. This put them at the highest price for our sample order at $1813.50.

Drawbacks

Oakley is significantly more expensive for colonial posts and has a slightly less diverse selection of sign materials than Dee Sign.

Visit Oakley Sign

Other Sign Companies

Build a Sign had relatively low prices for our sample order (10 yard sign colonial posts, 10 30”x24” aluminum sign panels, 5 open house feather flags), high ratings on Google Trusted Stores, and online sign designer.

Drawbacks

The only real drawbacks with Build A Sign is that they are a generalist sign company rather than a real estate-specific company. While you can still very easily get great signs for a great price on Build A Sign, they don’t yet have a large number of built in franchise stores offering sign templates for popular brokerages that Oakley and Dee Sign have. While this isn’t the end of the world, some agents and brokerages just want branded signs quickly and don’t want to worry about custom designs.

Visit Build a Sign

In-Depth Review: Dee Sign vs. Build A Sign vs. Oakley Signs

Pricing

Probably at the top of any newer agent or boutique broker/owner’s list, pricing was fairly similar across all companies. Slight variations in materials and sizes meant we would never be able to get an exact price match, but we feel our example order is representative of a first order for a newer agent or brokerage. Here’s how the three companies stacked up for pricing.

Pricing for same real estate signs order

	Dee Sign	Oakley	Build a Sign
Total for 10 post, 10 panels, and 5 open house feather flags	$1697.50	$1813.50	$1728.10
Price per unit for 10 Yard sign posts (colonial post 30” aluminum)	$62.10	$89.42	$66.25
Price per unit for 10 yard sign panels 30x24 (aluminum, double sided)	$61.75 (slightly thicker material + custom design included)	$39.93	$40.69
Price per unit for five open house feather flag w/ pole (8’ custom)	$91.80 (7’ only)	$104	$131.74

Variety of sign materials available

Choosing the right materials for your real estate signs is always a toss up between cost and needs. More durable materials are always more expensive, but sometimes there are happy mediums that will work for most situations. Here’s how the three companies stacked up for variety of sign materials available.

Here’s a quick video from Dee Sign explaining the relative merits of each of their sign materials.

Where do They Ship From?

Since your real estate signs have to be loaded into trucks and shipped to your location, the location of your sign company is crucial for fast shipping. Here’s where the three real estate sign companies we looked at are located.

Turnaround Time

After shipping distance, turnaround time is another important factor for many Realtors. Of course anticipating future growth and ordering in well in advance is recommended, but this is not always possible.

The only problem with measuring turnaround time accurately is that there are a lot of variables that can affect how long your order takes to finish. The size of the order, the materials used, and the season can all mean faster or slower turnaround times. Generally speaking, you should expect slightly longer turnaround times in the spring and summer when the market is busiest. In the fall and winter on the other hand, turnaround time should be faster. If you need a quick turnaround time, always confirm timing with the company before placing your order.

Custom Sign Creation

Let’s face it, even though some Realtors will be perfectly content with stock templates, many will want totally custom designs. This is especially true for teams and boutique brokerages who will have more flexibility when it comes to branding.

Custom signs are handled three ways by most real estate sign companies.

1. They offer an online design tool that let’s you design or customize your real estate sign
2. They allow you to upload custom artwork designed by your team or a graphic designer
3. They offer their own in-house design services to create your custom sign

Here’s how the three companies handled custom sign creation.

Also like Dee Sign, Build A Sign offers in-house design services to help create your sign. However, they are not included in the sign price and start at $19.95 for basic design assistance. That means color matching, converting files, background removal etc. They also offer full custom layouts that start at $59.95.

Franchises Supported

If you’re an agent or team working for a national franchise like Keller Williams, then it might make sense to go with a real estate sign company that supports your brokerage. That said, all this support really entails is offering templates that are on-brand and will work well for the franchise you work for. Since your sign will need to be customized with your name and contact information anyway, many Realtors opt for a fully custom sign design. This makes franchise support much less important. For boutique brokerages, it’s a moot point.

Reviews

While taking online reviews should be taken with a grain of salt, social proof is still a pretty good way to get a thumb in the air reading of a company. Here’s how the three companies did with online reviews.

Customer Support

Since real estate signs are often a custom (not to mention expensive) purchase, great customer service is a must. Here’s how the three companies stacked up for customer service.

All Real Estate Sign Options with Sample Pricing

The Bottom Line

While there are a lot of places to buy real estate signs, we chose Dee Sign as our top pick because of their multiple shipping locations, low pricing, wide variety of sign materials to choose from and the fact that they have been in business for more than 40 years.

Visit Dee Sign