Last week, I invited a client to join me while I previewed one of her neighbor's homes, and then we went for lunch. She lost he husband to cancer in October, and I really hadn't seen her since (just some Facebook time). We had a really nice visit. In fact, what I thought would be an hour and a half together becamse 3 hours lickety-split.
During our conversation, she mentioned that her best friend had gotten divorced and sold her house last year. I opened my wallet and handed her three business cards! (ASK FOR REFERRALS!)
Then she mentioned that aquaintances had brought two different people to her who expressed an interest in buying her home. Here's the real deal.... BOTH of those people just happened to have sold their homes through Craigslist, themselves. One was a $300,000 home, and the other was priced over $800,000. They sold their homes on Craigslist. I almost fell out of the booth.
I will be attempting the Craigslist once again. (big sigh here) We'll see how the spam goes, but I have a separate email address for Craigslst that gets dumped into a special folder all to itself. I searched AR and found several good posts about Craigslist and some tips about how to use it effectively.
From Fayetteville NC Realtor, Melissa McKinney, after a presentation by Ben Kinney:
-Don't worry about making a pretty ad, one photo and a paragraph is all that's needed, but post the ad every 48 hours until the property is sold. This will bring in the leads, whether or not for this house.
A comment I found by Peggy James-Erick in Woodbridge, Virginia.
-When you write a post for Craigslist, think bigger than just your area. Think of where people are relocating from. Use Titles that will grab a relocation persons attention. Remember they are frustrated searching for homes online. They need help...are you the agent who has good content on Craigslist where they landed? Compelling headlines and added value content is what works with craigslist.
Also a comment, this one by Fernando Herboso in Montgomery County MD
-Post when people have free time. . lunch time, Friday from 3PM to 5Pm (people killing time to go home and their bosses already left) . ..Saturday mornings 10:00 AM and the absolutely best times to post are on holiday weekends or snow days.
A great tip from Bridget "Mortgage Mama" McGee, with Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corp
-Track your progress with your posts. Keep a list of when you post and when you get responses. You may see a pattern!
I am not a heavy lister, and I'm still thinking that I am going to need an assistant soon to handle these things. An assistant is the key; I honestly don't believe all of these things can be done solo. BUT... I've had assistants before, and that's way I'll go. Craigslist, here I come..........
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