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Making the Most of... Craig's List

By
Real Estate Agent with Remax Excellence - Silver Spring, MD Maryland #318884

Making the most of...Craig’s List

As real estate professionals, we are always looking for great marketing options.  If you haven’t already tried it, Craig’s List is a great way to market yourself, your listings, open houses, and much more.

Marketing Your Listings on Craig’s List

  • If you use a service such as Postlets or vFlyers, you can copy the code for your listing flyers and past it right into a Craig’s List post for a beautiful html version of your listing flyer.  Then, simply post it under the real estate section and city for your listing.
  • Be sure to remove and repost your flyers on Craig's List every week to keep them fresh in the listings.
  • Post price reductions on Craig’s List to give your listings added exposure in their city listings.
  • Post open houses on Craig's List to tell people when they can get a tour of your listings.  This will give you more exposure than your newspaper advertising will provide.

Marketing Yourself on Craig’s List

  • Create a nice advertisement for yourself and post it on Craig’s List under “Services, Real Estate” for the appropriate city.
  • Be sure to include your specialty area, if you have one (such as first-time home buyers, relocations, move-up or move-down, military, etc.).
  • If you focus on a subdivision, cul-de-sac, or community, make those names as prominent as possible to draw attention to them.
  • Include a call to action in your post.  Make mention of your newsletter, mailing list, VIP club, etc. to give people a reason to not only see your information but make the leap to contact you as well.

When used properly, Craig’s List can be a wealth of both buyer and seller leads!  Happy hunting!

Emcee Arah
RE/MAX Excellence Realtor with Architectural Dimension
Serving all your Real Estate needs in MD, VA & Wash., DC

Stephanie Curd-Goulette
Livin' the Dream Real Estate, LLC - Morrison, CO

Emcee, what a great idea.  Although I use Craig's List for lots of things, I have yet to actually just market myself in services.  I am always thinking of selling something tangible and not including myself in that list!  Thanks for the suggestion.

Aug 04, 2010 12:16 PM
John Thomas
E3 Green HOMES - Boulder, CO
EcoBroker, MSEE, MBA

it is also helpful to create an account on CL and post your listings from that account. Every two days go in and delete the posting and then post it ne and it will jump back to the top of the list.

Aug 04, 2010 12:32 PM
Kristen Wheatley
Better Homes & Gardens | The Masiello Group - Brunswick, ME
Supporting Success - Best Job in the World!

My only problem with using Craigslist is the HUGE amount of spam I receive.

Aug 04, 2010 03:12 PM
Andy Chaudoir
Professional Inspection Services - Georgetown, Texas - Georgetown, TX
Your Home Inspection Connection in Central Texas

Hello Emcee - Thanks for the reminder and the kick in the pants.  As an inspector I don't ever have a ny listings but I really should market myself on Craigslist.  Thanks again.

Aug 04, 2010 03:47 PM
Kay Van Kampen
RE/MAX Broker, RE/MAX - Springfield, MO
Realtor®, Springfield Mo Real Estate

Emcee, I've almost given up on Craigslist.  I keep getting bogus emails and spam from it.  Do you get this when you're using Postlets?

Aug 04, 2010 03:57 PM
Amy Powell
RE/MAX Specialists - Jacksonville, FL

Emcee, you have offered some wonderful tips.  I agree with some of the other comments about the amount of spam that comes through.  I am using Postlets.  I wonder if there is any way to avoid this.

Aug 04, 2010 04:35 PM
Emcee M. Arah
Remax Excellence - Silver Spring, MD - Silver Spring, MD
Realtor w/Architectural Dimension, AHWD CRS B-Arch

Thanks for the comments, Stephanie and Andy. We always forget to market ourselves, don't we?

That's right, John.  Keeping the listings fresh on CL will give them the most exposure - and that's the goal, isn't it?

Kristen, Kay, and Amy - we get spam however if we get one valid contact from our efforts each month, which turns into a buyer or seller, we just feel it's worth it.

Be sure to set up a separate e-mail account specifically for your CL advertising.  That way, all the spam won't just flood your inbox.

~Emcee

Aug 06, 2010 04:09 AM
Valerie Ofoma
LongandFoster - Silver Spring, MD

I recently started to post my listing and promote myself on craigslist.  I've been directing them to my website which I can track. 

Aug 07, 2010 10:43 AM
Kay Van Kampen
RE/MAX Broker, RE/MAX - Springfield, MO
Realtor®, Springfield Mo Real Estate

Thanks Emcee, I'll set up a different account tomorrow.  When you use postlets, do you get as much spam?

Aug 08, 2010 11:18 AM
Todd Clark - Retired
eXp Realty LLC - Tigard, OR
Principle Broker Oregon

I get an average of 6000 unique visitors to my website a month directly from my Craigslist advertising. You post your information everywhere, the more you post, the more exposure you have.

Sep 08, 2010 07:19 PM