San Antonio Bandit Sign Laws

[Marcus Jackson]

What sort of fines have you guys encountered from putting up bandit signs in San Antonio? I’m going to start placing some around the city with my google voice number attached but I want to know what to expect. 

[Seth Teel]

For buying properties, I don't find bandit signs to be very effective.  If you are looking for buyers or to sell a property bandit signs will definitely get your phone ringing.  Expect about 100 to 1 ratio of calls to decent leads.  I haven't thrown signs in years, because I don't feel the time spent relative to conversion rate is high enough.  

As for legality, bandit signs are illegal.  The City of San Antonio adopted a new sign ordinance in last year (view ordinance https://docsonline.sanantonio.gov/FileUploads/dsd/...).  If you'd like your sign to be compliant, you need to pay a registration fee, then buy permit sticker for each sign.  This would be extremely costly to do.  The good news is enforcement is almost non-existent.  You basically will need to be caught in the act of placing a sign in order to get ticketed and fined.  I have thrown thousands of signs and never been ticketed. 

In some municipalities (Windcrest & Balcones Heights) you will get a call from the Police Department or Chief of Police.  They try to scare you, threaten to fine you, say they'll find you, ask you to pick all the signs up, etc.  It's all BS.  Just be polite, end the call,  and go about your day.