A QR code on a property listing board that opens the photos

Why a QR code on a property listing board

A sale board outside a home does one job. It tells people walking or driving past that the home is for sale. Most of them will not stop to call. A QR code on a property listing board gives them a quieter step. They point a phone at the board, and the code opens the photos of the home.

The code does not hold the photos. It holds a short web address, and the phone opens the page at that address. Everything that matters lives on that page: the photos, the asking price, the floor plan and the way to book a visit.

This guide covers two things. What the photos page should look like, and how big the code must be for someone to scan it from a car window.

What the code should open

Open one page, made for a phone. Not the agency's home page, and not a search page with forty other homes. The person scanning is standing at the gate or sitting in a stopped car. They want this house, now.

A good photos page for a board follows this order:

1. The front of the house, the same view they are looking at. It tells them they scanned the right board.
2. The asking price and the size of the home, in one line.
3. Fifteen to twenty-five photos, room by room, in the order you walk through the home.
4. The floor plan as one image.
5. One button to book a visit or send a message.

Keep each photo under about 300 KB. A buyer at the kerb on a weak signal will close a page that takes ten seconds to load. Twenty photos at 300 KB each come to about 6 MB, which most phones open in a few seconds on a normal mobile signal.

Put the call and message buttons on the page itself. Then the board does not need a long phone number printed beside the code, and the person can tap instead of typing.

How big to print it for a car window

The working rule is simple. The side of the code should be about one tenth of the distance to the person scanning. A code 100 mm square scans well from about 1 metre. A code 300 mm square scans from about 3 metres.

Now picture the person in the car. The board stands at the front of the plot, behind the footpath. The car stops at the kerb. Between the passenger window and the board there is usually 3 to 4 metres: the footpath, a strip of verge and the gap to the gate.

So for a board meant to be read from a car, print the code at 300 mm square at the least, and 400 mm if the board sits well back from the road. On a common 600 × 900 mm board, a 300 mm code takes half the width. That is fine. The code is the part doing the work.

For a small board fixed to a gate or a wall, where people walk up close, 150 mm is enough. They will be within 1.5 metres of it.

The length of the address matters too. A short web address makes a code with fewer, bigger squares. Fewer squares scan from further away at the same printed size. This is one more reason to use a short dynamic link instead of a long page address.

Contrast, panel and height

Print the code dark on a plain white panel. Black on white scans best. Dark blue or dark green on white also works. Light grey, yellow, or any colour close to the board's own background will fail in low evening light.

Never print the code over a photo of the house. The photo breaks up the squares, and the phone cannot find the edges.

Leave a clear white border around the code, at least four of the small squares wide on every side. On a 300 mm code that is roughly 30 mm of plain white all round.

Choose matte vinyl or a matte laminate for the board. A gloss finish throws back the afternoon sun, and the camera sees white glare instead of the code.

Hang the code so its centre sits 1.2 to 1.5 metres above the ground. A person seated in a car looks out at about 1.1 to 1.2 metres. A person standing looks at about 1.5 metres. A code in that band works for both. Keep it off the bottom edge of a tall board, where a parked scooter or a hedge will cover it.

You can try colours and module shapes on the QR colours and shapes page before you print. Pick the plainest one that still suits your board.

The words next to the code

A code with no words around it gets ignored. Put one short line above it, in letters at least 60 mm tall so they read from the car: "Scan for photos". Add the count if you like, such as "Scan for 22 photos". It tells the person what they get for the effort.

Leave out long lines of text. The board already carries the agency name and the words for sale. The code panel needs only its one line.

When the home is sold

A board can stand for weeks or months. The price changes. New photos come in after a repaint. Then the home is sold, and the board comes down, but often not the same day.

This is why the code should be dynamic. A dynamic code opens a short link that you control. You can change where it points without reprinting the board. Lower the price, and the page updates. Add photos of the new kitchen, and the same code opens them. Mark the home sold, and point the code to a page that says so and shows two or three similar homes nearby.

That last step matters. People still scan a board after the sale. A dead page loses them. A page that says the home is sold and offers three more keeps them.

Agencies that reuse boards can re-point the same printed code to the next listing when the board moves to a new plot. That means one code per board, not one per home.

If the same home is also listed elsewhere online, tell us where you sell, and we will help you choose which page the code should open.

Check the proof before you print

Scan the printed proof from 3 metres, sitting down, on two different phones. Do it once in daylight and once at dusk. Check that the first photo is the front of the house. Check that the page loads on mobile data, not just on office wi-fi. Then send the board to print.

Use code STARTUP10 for 10% off one order per account. It is valid until 31 December 2026 or for the first 100 uses on this site, whichever comes first.

To order a dynamic code for your board, choose it on the QR codes for every job page and set your photos page as the first place it opens.