That's great to hear Ginny.  The power of Craigslist is well-documented and too great to be overlooked as a marketing tool.

That Craig Newmark is quite the unique individual, with some very interesting methods, but he sure hit one out of the park with Craigslist.

I have been using CL for about 6 months now. I put 2 listings every day or so up and keep them rotating. If you post too often or too many at one time, they will start deleting your posts.

About 80% of my web site traffic comes from CL. I have picked up a few good leads, one of them is going to buy 4 houses, (he is relocating his business here). I haven't closed any deals yet from CL, but should have a steady stream started before the end of the year.

Congratulations on your quick success, keep posting there and you will see results.

Hi Ginny-Yes I have been using Craigslist since May-I get tons of hits from CL(about 300 a day). I have found that most people on read the from the top of the list on down.  So after a couple of days you can see fewer and fewer hits on your listing.  So I decided to only put on one listing a day.  It keeps the aveverage daily hit total up.  Don't forget Backpage and Active Rain and Kijjijji.  The more you put out on the web the better. Good Luck!

www.calgriffin.com

Edisto Beach-Now That's Heaven!

Has anyone actually closed on a deal that came from Craig's List?

I have Mike.   It is a great tool and very popular here in Portland, Oregon.

When I check the CL site in some cities there are very few posts/ads.   Savannah has a fair amount (you have around 20-30 "real estate for sale" listings posted today.  

But if you look at Portland, you'll see we have several hundred posted today ( I gave up trying to count them...), so perhaps we just do better with Craig's List because of popularity.

Phil, Cool. I was just wondering, because I have heard a lot about leads but no actual conversion information.

Well, I don't get 300 hits a day like Cal (I wish) from CL.  Maybe if I had a ton of listings...  I'm only taking listings that are reasonable for this market... so I have very few!

What's your secret, Cal?

The first time I listed on Craigslist I got a call from an investor in New York. He kept me on the phone for over 40 minutes. He said he was flying into Dallas to see this house (as an investment, rental property) in a couple of days. He mentioned other rental properties he owned in this area and in Pheonix. I was very excited. I put together a list of numerous properties I could show him while he was in town just in case my listing was not what he was looking for. He never showed.  I still have him on drip e-mail. So far I have not sold anything off Craigslist yet.

Phil,

We gave up in frustration with Portlands' craigslist, at first we had some success with our postings, then for a period of a couple of weeks we had them continually flagged down and removed. (seemed like someone just didn't like Real Estate agents) Guess we will have to give it another try using Gary's approach of not posting them all together at one time and see if that helps.

Craig's list is our best prospect generating tool right now and has been for more than 6 months. We haven't closed any deals thanks to CL but have a lot of people "incubating" with the help of our drip e-mail campaign.

I think CL is very "city dependent". It seems to work quite well in some locations, not so well in others. Almost every time I post a listing on CL, I'll get a call asking if it's for rent. Nary a real buyer yet.

I don't do a good job refreshing it frequently though.

Cathy and Fred.

Sorry, I'll stop flagging your posts.  I didn't know it was "you"...  (Kidding)

Yes, they do get removed.  I try keep them up there...  It's a chore!

I love the ease P2 has given us to put our listing up on Craigslist!  It will stay up for a week, then you will need to replace it.  Backpage is up for a month I think.  You may get flagged.  If you do just put it back in.  They do have people who think they are the Craigslist police.  If you put it in the wrong area or for whatever reason it may get flagged.  Don't panic just put it back up.  If you followed P2 instructions you have done nothing wrong.

Jana

I closed 2 deals from Craigslist. Here in the New York City Metro area Craigslist is HUGE and almost everyone uses it. I was using CL before I was a point2 member. Its FREE advertising, why Wouldnt you use them?

CL has worked well for us.  Without going into the actual numbers, I'll simply share that this is turning into our best year ever and about 20% of closed sales can be attributed directly or indirectly (customer found us on CL and ended up purchasing something else through us).  We just closed a direct CL hit transaction yesterday and have 3 more scheduled for next week that are direct hits from CL (although 2 of those are beginning to unravel due to financing issues).

Craigs list works well with rental listings, lot of hits and most of our listings have been rented because of them.  As far a home sale listings we get only a few hits but well worth the effort and the price is right!

P2 has made it easy for us to put up nice looking listings on Craigs but I have yet to be able to post more than one at a time.  With what I do, I have to put several up at the same time so it doesn't work well with me.  I did have a little house on the lake that resulted in a few phone calls and I've received a few emails from a couple of other ones but no sales yet.

I have yet to close a deal from CL, but I feel confident that some of the leads I am getting will result in sales.

Another "tip" about CL; don't use any phrases like "Bring us an offer" or "Great Investment". Keep your tag lines clear and concise about what the home is and it is for sale. CL is picky about words and anything that sounds like ebay will get you flagged.

I closed my very first prospect call from CL, but that is the only one. I love CL and receive loads of traffic from it. Ive only been using it for a few months and even sold my husbands truck in less than 48 hours using CL.

I do post to Craigslist and it does seem to increase traffic but nothing that has turned into a sale as of yet. As Jay said, I think it has a good bit to do with your area. I'm in a small town and our Craigslist is combined with a city 45 minutes north of us (Flagstaff/Sedona). Still, it is free so I do it.

I put all of my listings there. With the Point2 setup it only takes about thirty seconds. I've never had anyone tell me that they found me through Craigslists but according to UltraStats the site is a good referral source. I'll take the free traffic.

I have a townhome for rent right now and while I've only had one agent show it since I listed it two weeks ago, I already had more than 20 people call me from Craig's list asking about this rental and I've shown it about 6 times thanks to CL and have couple other appointments scheduled. Can't think of better advertising for rentals than Craig's!

It works well with my rentals- closed one within two days of posting.  Too bad P2 does not create auto posts for rentals though...

Gary,

You mention not to use phrases like "Great Investment".  Why?  I use phrases like that on CL for investment type listings all the time.  It works fine for us.  We very seldom get flagged... maybe once every couple of months and I think it's just someone that likes to flag for no reason when it happens.  I rotate our listings constantly and often put up 4 or 5 at a time with no problems.

I think every market is different and agents just need to play around with it to see what works for them.  Don't be discouraged if you get flagged... just try something different the next time.

I have tried the phrase "Great Investment" on a listing and it got flagged even before I confirmed the listing. I read in a post (either here or on the CL forum) that anything that appears to even resemble an ebay type listing, ie. "Make Offer", "Investment", etc. will get you flagged.

Like you said, every market is different. It has been awhile since I tried that type of wording...may try it again to see what happens.

I was also putting 4 or 5 at at time up a few months ago and they too were flagged immediatedy before I confirmed the post. They are flakey to say the least.

Excellent traffic though, like others have said, I will take the free traffic. Several people have mentioned they found me via CL.

There are plenty of scams on message boards. Recently, while looking for Redskins tickets on craiglist, I came across the "TNT scam". Thanks for the reminder about being careful Ginny.

How about the other post to the Backdoor? Has that gotten any activity for anyone?

I have closed several deals b/c of craigs list. On the net that is one of the biggest lead generators I have . I acctually just got off the phone with a couple who is driving down from CT to buy a condo for their son who goes to college here! Guess what, the lead came from CL!

What I do is repost all of my listings (43 and growing) every 2 weeks.

I also use common search terms in my headline like "Myrtle Beach, SC Homes for sale in Plantation Lakes" . Believe it or not, this helps boost rankings AND sometimes my CL posting comes in in the top 5 on google for pricey search terms!

Before P2A formed a relationship with CL I never knew about them.. I wish I would have known sooner!

Gregory,

We get some traffice via Backpage but no sales or solid prospects yet.  We spend the very few dollars to have them automatically reposted every 3 days and have paid for the ads a few times (very inexpensive but results weren't any better than without the ads).

Thanks, Tim. I see Michaela has paid for her renewal to Realtor dot com. I don't see any direct benefit from the expense but I do have traffic coming from there to my web site. So, I will most likely pay up when its time to renew. Jake Lee makes a good point about the heading on CL. I was just using the recommended one that comes up on the sidebar when posting. I have been trying to trim my costs for the last two years and find it almost impossible to get feed back on what works. Now every I open my email I get an avalache of requests to join this foreclosure or that networking web site. Arrrrrrrr (scream of exasperation).

ROFL - I'm getting a ton of those emails, too!  And a lot of phone calls trying to get me to attend seminars and join clubs, etc.  Sometimes I'll get 2-3 calls from different people on the same day trying to get me to sign up for the same seminar.  

I am slowly learning to just give a quick 'no' and hang up without letting it raise my blood pressure.  Same with the damned broadcast emails telling me about a listing that I have full access to in the MLS already.  Whatever.....   LOL

I'm even learning to ignore the fact that P2 ignores us and our requests for assistance on the message boards.  I'm making real progress... my therapist thinks I may almost be ready to reduce my meds. (Just kidding!)

Backpage is one of the syndication partners (it is right after the CL syndication)- similar to CL.  I don't think the auto-renewal is an option with CL.

Backpage is only available is some areas, not sure how close any of the Florida cities are to you Ginny. I get some traffic from Backpage but most comes from CraigsList...use it, they will come.

Craigslist is a wonderful tool and you just have to be careful just like you would when someone unfamiliar calls you!