Many have posted on Active Rain about the virtues of advertising on Craigslist. In my last count there were over one hundred posts on this topic and the vast majority talk about its advantages. I'm here to say you need to be careful when you advertise your listing on Craigslist. Why? Because, Craigslist is fast turning into the red light district of the Internet. As the New York Times reported last week:

"Craigslist has become the high-tech 42nd Street, where much of the solicitation takes place now," said Richard McGuire, Nassau's assistant chief of detectives. "Technology has worked its way into every profession, including the oldest."

In July raids, the sheriff of Cook County, Ill., rounded up 43 women working on the streets - and 60 who advertised on Craigslist. In Seattle, a covert police ad on Craigslist in November resulted in the arrests of 71 men, including a bank officer, a construction worker and a surgeon.

And while prostitutes also advertise on other sites, the police here and across the country say Craigslist is by far the favorite. On one recent day, for example, some 9,000 listings were added to the site's "Erotic Services" category in the New York region alone: Most offered massage and escorts, often hinting at more.

Why do agents need to keep this in mind? Well, because you don't want to be advertising in a swamp if you're not looking for flies. Craigslist might give you great exposure and help you prove to your clients that you're doing some on-line marketing, but in the long run you've got to ask yourself where you want to be found. 

You don't need a degree to know that in marketing perception is reality. In most cases the medium used to convey the message defines the messenger. In Real Estate the product is the agent. The house is a by-product. An agent attracts the type of buyer he or she seeks. So, this begs the question: What kind of product are you? Do you want to work with Shrek or Lord Farquaad?

Lani, over at RE Revealed raises the exact same issueon her blog, and I agree with her:

The only problem is that most of us don't venture past the "housing" section of Craigslist to know that one of the most popular draws of Craigslist is the "personals" section. It is common knowledge that Craigslist's success began with the "personals" and "for sale" sections. Some of the personals range from questionable to pornographic. Looking to buy a ball-gag wearing bedroom slave? Look no further than the famed Craigslist.

That's great for those in the market for a slave, but did you even know that the same venue you post clients' homes on is used for this purpose?

Let's review this again, in case you skimmed over the beginning of this post, again from the New York Times:

Law enforcement officials ask why Craigslist even includes Erotic Services among its 191 categories. Mr. Buckmaster, the company president, said the site created that category "at the request of our users" for legitimate massage, escorts and exotic dancers.

The bottom line is you use Craigslist at your own risk and as far as listing Real Estate, it's a business decision. More specifically it's a market positioning decision.Whether you want your face on a sale sign next to the local De Ja Vu Club or not is up to you and maybe based on the house you have to sell. This may get you some additional traffic, but when was the last time traffic paid the bills? This is something many agents really understand and a few posts have pointed out.

Read my take on Cragslist and MySpace here, at the Arizona Mortgage Gurublog.