You can tell the times have changed with regard to how we get our information. Case in point: Word of an old sign ordinance spreads like the Swine Flu.

Many, many years ago, the City of Chicago passed a sign ordinance banning signs from being placed in the public way. Fines for this offense range from $100-$500--making each sign you put in the public way a very expensive lead.

Every so often various aldermen's offices or members of the public inform the Chicago Association of REALTORS that real estate agents are violating the law. Periodically, the association communicates to its members they are violating the law with their open house signs via the communication of the current time (at first the Chicago REALTOR newspaper, then the magazine). Now this information is posted on its website, and warnings are e-mailed to its members. All along there has been outreach to the designated brokers.

As a long-time member of Chicago Association of REALTORS' Government Affairs Committee, I was well aware of the weekly violations and complaints coming into the association, as well as all the years of ongoing outreach efforts the association did (and still does) to make its members aware of all legislation that affects our industry. Most of the Chicago Real Estate community has ignored the sign law as if it didn't apply to them until last week.

Mary Ellen Podmolik of the Chicago Tribune wrote an article about a certain alderman and the sign ordinance posted early Friday. Within minutes, many of the Tweeters were all in a Twitter about this law they claim to have never known about and how it will fringe on their business. It was spreading like a wild fire on Twitter, as it kept being re-tweeted. As someone who keeps Seesmic (a desktop platform that integrates Twitter and Facebook) running in the background of her computer and is on Twitterberry when she is away from it, the uproar is still continuing days later.

If these real estate agents used the medium they use to express their rage through to promote their open houses, they would have quality prospects coming through their listings (rather than somebody who stumbled over a sign on a corner a block away). Buyers who are real purchasers have typically toured the home virtually online before coming to the property. They have downloaded the list of the homes they want to visit from a variety of sites including brokerages Web sites and open house portals.

The odds of a qualified buyer finding your listing is a lot better optimized/advertised online via Web sites, portals, good SEO, syndication and social networking than with signs at every corner that could be thrown away and for which the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation could fine you. At the cost of $500 per lead, is that a quality lead?