Craigslist for real estate? The idea may sound strange. Isn’t Craigslist the place where people give away free yoga lessons, try to sell soiled furniture or post ads for their missed romantic connections? Isn’t using a more reputable service a better idea?
First of all: yes, you should be primarily listing your home through a real estate agent or similar listing service. Along with helping you list the home, they will provide you with support and information about many of the potential pitfalls of real estate transactions.
Image: Alisha Vargas / Flickr
But even if you are using a real estate agent, you can still ask them to post on Craigslist as well as on MLS. Whether you do it through an agent or alone, the benefits are obvious. Craigslist is popular – nearly 0.2% of all Internet traffic goes to the site. It’s free. And when you post on Craigslist, you can attract not only the buyers who are actively looking – you can also find people who are just testing the water. Casting a wide net can only be good thing.
Here are the top five points to keep in mind:
1. Choose a grabby and informative headline. Listing the number of bedrooms and bathrooms is a good start, as is mentioning the name of the neighbourhood. Make sure that your post is clear, that you have high-quality photos attached, and that your post lists all of the most relevant information a buyer would need.
2. Have a number of times when you are available to show your property, or to have your real estate agent show your property. Be attentive! The slower you are to respond to emails or phone calls, the more likely you are to miss out on a potential buyer.
3. Since there is a constant renewal of listings on Craigslist, post your ad regularly. How often will depend on your market. In some markets, once every few days may be sufficient, but in others, you may need to do it once or twice a day. Don’t overdo it, though: spamming Craigslist will make you seem desperate.
4. Post just before the evening. Most people look at Craigslist ads between 6-10pm, so making sure you are posted just before the rush starts means that you will catch the early birds, but will also not get lost under a bunch of posts in a busy market.
5. When you are posting multiple times, you won’t be able to post the exact same post each time unless you delete the original. If it’s been three or four days since you posted the original in a busy market, this should be fine. However, most likely you will need to have at least two or three posts with some slight variations to ensure that potential buyers can always see your listing.
I hope that’s been helpful. In my next post I will list some things to avoid when posting real estate listings on Craigslist.
Nelson Goulart
Broker of Record with Signature Service GMAC Real Estate
www.ssgmac.ca
