How to make a DIY sold by realtor sign + FREE SVG

December 24, 2020

Create a personalized SOLD BY (insert name here) sign for your realtor. Or if you’re a realtor create one for yourself.

DIY SOLD BY REALTOR SIGN + FREE SVG: Learn how to make your own sold by realtor sign + grab my FREE to use SVG in my resource library

painting a blue transparent stenciled wood sign. Sign reads: sold by Melissa with a house and a red heart. Sign is darkly stained in Kona stain and lettering is painted in white

These are wonderful and unique additions to the house-selling world. You can gift them to your favorite realtor use them for a photo prop, or hang them in your office to give it a personalized and cozy touch.

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A realtor friend of mine reached out to me and asked me to make her a personalized SOLD BY MELISSA sign and of course I said yes! Her mom is also a realtor and the person who sold us our beautiful old home. I made her this gorgeous thank you gift, a ROUND LAST NAME SIGN, she made the whole home buying process seamless for us.

Rustic farmhouse round last name sign with established date. Black lettering. Half stained half painted in chalk paint white. Sitting on a rusty metal chair with an old window behind it and a wood crate off to the side on a front porch.

I was excited when her realtor daughter messaged me asking for a personalized realtor sign for herself. And excited to share the SVG I used with you to use for free. You can find the SVG in my free resource library. This is where I keep all of my free printables, cut files, and more.

dark stained wood with the words SOLD BY MELISSA painted in white on the front of the sign. There is also an image of a house silhouette and a red heart

Here’s what you need to make your own realtor sign

dark stained wood with the words SOLD BY MELISSA painted in white on the front of the sign. There is also an image of a house silhouette and a red heart
Print

DIY SOLD BY REALTOR SIGN

Learn how to make your own sold by realtor sign + grab my FREE to use SVG in my resource library
Total Time1 hour
Cost: $

Equipment

Materials

Instructions

  • CUT & STAIN THE WOOD BASE- Cut your 1×8 pine board to your desired length. I cut mine to 21". Sand if needed. Then, using a lint free cloth stain the wood base with your choice of stain color. Let dry per manufactures instructions.
  • CUT & APPLY THE STENCIL- Use your craft cutting machine to cut a stencil from ORAMASK STENCIL FILM. Weed out the lettering/images then apply it to the wood base with transfer tape.
  • REMOVE AIR BUBBLES & SEAL THE STENCIL- Using a vinyl squeegee press out any air bubbles then seal teh stencil with a THIN layer of matte finish mod podge. This will keep the paint from seeping under the stencil and causing paint bleed.
  • PAINT THE STENCIL- After the mod podge has dried paint the stencil using the desired colors. Paint VERY THIN layers of paint.
  • PEEL UP THE STENCIL- Once you are happy with the coverage peel the stencil up while your paint is still wet. Use an exacto knife or sewing pin to remove any middle pieces.
  • LET DRY- Let your newly painted wood sign dry completely before using.

Hey there, I’m so glad you’re here! If you enjoy this sign painting tutorial be sure to check out these other posts below:

Making a DIY SOLD BY wood sign

1. CUT & STAIN THE WOOD BASE

The first thing I did was cut and stain my wooden base. My SOLD BY realtor sign was made from a 1×8 (which actually measures 7.5” not 8” if you are new to using lumber to make things). I cut it to measure 21”, which I thought was a good size for photos when the house is sold.

blank unfinished wood sign base with a can of Kona dark stain sitting on top of it. Stain can is old and has been used with stain dripping down the sides of it. White stain rags on the natural colored wood base.
Need help with staining? Be sure to watch this video showing you how to stain an unfinished wood base.

Then I stained it in KONA using my lint free rags. Even though it was a 1-hour dry stain I let my sign dry for 24 hours and used these super helpful paint stand gems I found on Amazon.

dark stained wood plank drying on a table that's covered in a drop cloth. Sign is resting on red paint stands

2. CUT & APPLY THE STENCIL

After the stain was COMPLETELY DRY I cut out my stencil and applied it to my wood base.

PRO TIP: stencil material will not adhere to a wet surface. It doesn’t matter if it is slightly wet or super wet, it’s not going to stick down. Think of it like a sticker, essentially that is what a stencil is except you remove it.

How to apply a stencil:

  • weed stencil to remove letters/images but leave the middles in tact
  • apply clear transfer tape to the front of the stencil then remove paper backing
  • center stencil on wood base then press out air bubbles with vinyl squeegee
  • slowly remove transfer tape from the stencil
  • removing the white paper backing from an Oramask 813 blue translucent stencil. Stencil is sitting on a dark stained piece of wood and woman is rolling the paper backing off of the sticky stencil
  • woman is using a blue vinyl squeegee to press out any bubbles that are on the stenciled wood sign. Stencil is a translucent blue and made from Oramask stencil film. Stencil reads Sold by Melissa with an image of a house and a heart.

3. REMOVE AIR BUBBLES & SEAL THE STENCIL

I used my vinyl squeegee to help press out any noticeable air bubbles.

Then I sealed my stencil with matte finish mod podge

  • woman holding a large bottle of matte finish mod podge to seal a wood sign stencil. Sign base is stained in a dark kona brown. There is a blue vinyl squeegee and a blue handled pair of scissors on the craft table
  • stenciled wood sign with the oramask stencil film on the wood base. Sign is dark stained in Kona and the stencil reads Sold by Melissa with an image of a house and a heart

I painted on a SUPER THIN layer of the matte finish mod podge. This fills in all of the tiny little air bubbles that you can’t really tell are there BUT once you peel your stencil up you see where they were because your paint has bled into all of those little spots.

4. PAINT THE STENCIL

After the mod podge was dry I painted my stencil. I chose white for the lettering and the house image and red for the heart.

I painted a SUPER THIN coat of white paint on the entire stencil, even the heart that I will paint red later. You want to see the wood grain through your paint.

It didn’t take long for that to dry then I painted a second coat of white and painted the heart red.

  • stenciling a wood sign on a dark wood sign base. Stencil is a blue translucent and is being painted with white acrylic paint. Stencil reads: sold by Melissa and has an image of a house and a heart
  • dark stained wood sign with a painted stencil on it. Stencil is being painted white with a red heart. There is a paint tray with an artist paint brush on the craft table.

5. PEEL UP THE STENCIL

I will almost always peel my stencil up while the paint is still wet. Some people wait for their paint to dry but I’ve found my projects turn out better when I peel the stencil up with wet paint.

TIPS FOR PEELING UP A STENCIL:

  • peel while paint is still wet
  • start at one corner of the stencil and pull it toward the opposite corner
  • do not drop the wet stencil
  • use a sewing pin to remove the middle pieces of the stencil
  • woman is peeling up one corner of a blue translucent oramask 813 stencil. Stencil is painted white on a dark stained wood base.
  • dark stained wood base with white painted lettering. Woman is using a sewing pin to peel up the middle pieces of the stencil to remove them.

6. LET DRY

After I removed my stencil I let it dry completely and then sealed it with some clear matte finish spray.

dark stained wood with the words SOLD BY MELISSA painted in white on the front of the sign. There is also an image of a house silhouette and a red heart

I hope you enjoyed this sign painting tutorial. If you did be sure to sign up for my SIGN PAINTING COURSE teaching you EVERYTHING I know about sign making without the headache and stress it can be when you are first learning how to paint wood signs.

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