Palm Springs For Sale and Open House Sign Service: Know the Rules

Reader’s note: if you’re looking for rules about a specific city’s real estate sign rules, just press ”ctrl + f” on your keyboard and search for one of these cities: Cathedral City, Coachella, Desert Hot Springs, Indian Wells, Indio, La Quinta, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Thousand Palms.

Have you ever been in the middle of an open house only to have someone from the city call you about your signs being out of code? Or even worse, had someone pick up your signs, drop them at your door and slap you with a fine? That can really make you feel like you’ve wasted an afternoon, especially if it happens at the beginning of your showing.

This usually happens whenever your for sale or open house signs don’t comply with the city rules for your listing. This is a really frustrating situation - you’ve spent good money on high quality signs but it feels like a waste if you can’t put them out.

The easiest way to solve this problem is to hire a professional sign installation service in Palm Springs, like Install Now, to do it for you and save you hours of manual labor. We know all the rules and we have all the right materials! However, if you’re set on doing it yourself, we’re going to give you a few general tips we use which will help you avoid an issue. We’re also going to outline the rules for the cities in the Palm Springs Area so you can make good decisions about your signs!

1. Restrictions Get Easier on the Weekends. That’s not actually true, the restrictions are the same no matter what day it is. However, there are less people working on city time on the weekends, so the odds of someone giving you a hard time about your for sale sign installations or open house sign installations goes down substantially. This is particularly relevant for open houses, since most of them occur on weekends. But, if your city allows for sale signs, you’ll probably want to be a little more attentive to the letter of the law since they’re up 24x7 for 30 to 60 days.
2. In the Words of Captain Barbosa, the Code is More What You'd Call Guidelines Than Actual Rules. While there are clearly stated rules for each city, people aren’t out to get you - they want to make sure their community doesn't look shabby and tacky. If the code says a sign can be a maximum of 16 inches tall, but your sign is 20 inches, you’re probably going to be fine. No one is driving by with a tape measure to check. However, if you’re putting out a 48-inch-tall sign, you’re probably going to get a call at some point. 
3.  Make Good Relationships with the Cities. It really helps to know the people who work for your city. People working for the community and the planning & permit departments are more likely to cut you a break if you interact with them regularly and they know you generally follow the rules. This is a big reason we recommend hiring Install Now as your Palm Springs for sale sign installer and Palm Springs open house sign installer! Let us manage those relationships and keep things running smoothly for you. That way, you can spend more time on clients and showings rather than spending time looking through dozens of pages of city ordinances. 
4.  Don’t Forget about Community-specific Rules! If you have an HOA, they probably have rules about what you can do, even to the point of not allowing you to install for sale signs and open house signs at all. A 2-minute call to the HOA community manager could save you a big hassle. After you've spent so much time learning how to properly install a for sale sign, experiencing the frustration of putting it up, only to be told two days later to take it down, can be disheartening.  
5. Don’t Use A-Frame Signs. A lot of the cities don’t allow them, and, with few exceptions, they just don’t look as good as other options you can find. 
6. Don't Trust Hearsay. We've had so many people tell us "you can't do any sort of signs in La Quinta" - and that's just not true. If you call La Quinta's Planning Department, they'll tell you that they allow "for sale" signs! This guide should be definitive 

You want to have signs that show off your brand and work for every city. Generally that means having the largest sign possible with your logos and colors prominently displayed. If you wanted to be really cautious, you should make all of your signs 18” x 24” with brown and beige colors and no logos. However, that’s pretty tame, and again, people aren’t looking to cause you a problem. 

So, when it comes to for sale signs, we recommend you getting 24” x 24” with your logos and a simple 2-color combination (white and beige would be the safest). When it comes to your open house signs, we recommend you let us do it for you! We carry the brown and beige open house signs that will work for every community. But, if you want to do it yourself, then you should use the same 18” x 24” signs that we do too.

 After spending a dozen hours looking through city codes, we’ve pulled together the rules and restrictions that you need to know for each city. There are also links to the source material where you can double check yourself (we don’t recommend it – it’s a dry read). Instead of wasting your time reading all those rules and regulations, just give us a call, and we'll handle all the work for you!  

• Height: maximum of 7 feet tall 
• Size: maximum of 4 square feet
• Color: no restriction
• Open House Signs: maximum of 5 in an 8-hour period
• Special Rules: No A-Frame signs
• Link to Cathedral City Sign Rules.

Coachella Sign Install Rules.

• Height: maximum of 4 feet from the ground 
• Sign Size: maximum of 6 square feet
• Color: no restriction 
• Open House Signs: maximum of 2 signs from 8 a.m. until sunset.
• Special Rules: No A-Frame signs, no sign illumination.
• Link to Coachella Sign Rules. 

• Height: maximum of 5 feet tall
• Sign Size: maximum of 4 square feet
• Color: no restriction
• Open House Signs: maximum of 5 in an 8-hour period
• Special Rules: A-frame permitted with max height of 54 inches and 3 square feet
• Link to Desert Hot Springs Sign Rules.  

• Height: maximum of 4 feet tall
• Sign Size: 18in x 24in or less
• Color: beige background with brown lettering
• Open House Signs: (1) beige letters permitted on a brown directional arrow, (2) one sign per intersection, between 9am and dusk.
• Special Rules: (1) must be mounted on 1 or 2 metal stakes, (2) must be set back at least 5 feet from the curb, (3) logos shall not exceed 4 inches in height, (4) no sign illumination, (5) no flyer boxes
• Link to Indian Wells Sign Rules.

• Height: maximum of 6 feet
• Sign Size: maximum of 4 square feet
• Color: no restriction
• Open House Signs: maximum of 4 feet tall, no limit on # of signs but a weird limitation on the combined square footage for all the signs you place
• Special Rules: no A-frames, no illumination
• Link to Indio Sign Rules.

• Height: maximum of 4 feet tall
• Sign Size: maximum of 6 square feet
• Color: no restriction
• Open House Signs: 2 total signs that are a combined square footage of 4 feet tall and 6 square feet.
• Special Rules: no illumination.
• Link to La Quinta Sign Rules. 

• Height: maximum of 4 feet tall
• Size: maximum of 3 square feet 
• Color: no restriction
• Open House Signs: 4 total signs, maximum of 3 square feet, must be brown on a beige background, no logos or branding.
• Special Rules: no flags or banners, minimum of 5 feet from the curb, no placement in the median.
• Link to Palm Desert Sign Rules.

• Height: no restriction
• Size: 16 square feet
• Color: no more than 4 colors. 
• Open House Signs: no restriction
• Special Rules: none
• Link to Palm Springs Sign Rules.

• Height: maximum of 3 feet tall
• Size: 3 square feet 
• Color: no restriction
• Open House Signs: no restriction
• Link to Rancho Mirage Sign Rules.