Is Craigslist a good place to search for homes?

This is a great blog article from Jay Thompson on the different sites on the internet that you can search for homes locally. It talks about the differences between Zillow, Realtor, Trulia, MLS, etc. and which ones are the best and for what reasons. Jay neglects to mention Craigslist in his list of search engines and that is understandable because Craigslist is such a large database and is not designed specifically for home searching. I sent the author an email to see why he chose not to include such a popular site in his list. His response was that Craigslist is poorly designed for searching for homes and the total number of homes on the site is a small percentage of what is truly available on the market. However, he also said that he does post to such sites in order to get the highest amount of views out there for his clients, which is a good thing. While his analysis has some valid points, I think there are a few points that he might not have taken into consideration:

1. Craigslist is a starting point for buyers: Craigslist is very close to achieving standardization for classifieds search sites. If you want to understand standardiztion just think Google; do you use any of the other ten million search engines out there, or just Google? Google has become the industry standard. Why is the standardization of Craigslist important to real estate agents? Because its where buyers START THE PROCESS. So many home buyers begin their search on the site they know best, and that's Craigslist. They go to check out whats in their area, see an ad they like, call the agent, and boom, you've got a lead.
   
2. Craigslist is built for browsing: People sit and look for crap on Craigslist all day long. That's why there are 1000 ads a day posted to the Phoenix Real Estate site. There are a ton of hooks in the ocean, but there is also a lot of fish swimming around. I will give you this, there are way too many Residential-real-estate-for-sale ads on CL; so much that it is rare to get a single solid lead after a few weeks of TOP Posting. However, there is NO BETTER PLACE for marketing rental properites or Lease-Purchase Options on the Web. If you post a house or apartment for rent or especially an LPO on Craigslist, you will get calls.
   
3. Craigslist gets your name out there: If you search for a certain property type long enough, you start to see the same people posting the same types of properties. For example, one of our clients Jim uses EZ Posting to list properties in the commercial real estate section. Because his name is out there more and more, people who are searching for commercial real estate see Jim's name pop up a lot. Even if he doesn't have the exact property they want, people know that Jim handles a lot of Scottsdale commercial leasing and they are more apt to call him because they see his inventory on the Web.
   

So is Craigslist the answer to your marketing woes? Nope. But it can go a long ways in improving your online presence. Its true that CL isn't the greatest site for searching for homes, but its a place where a LOT of buyers begin the process. They see a property they like, give the agent a call, and all the sudden you have a solid lead, which we all know is a great thing to have.

Does posting ads on other Craigslist cities work?

I'm sure you have seen something like it before on Craigslist; You're browsing your Phoenix Craigslist site and you see "Beautiful 3 Bedroom in foreclosure!" You click on the ad, only to find that the house is in Prescott and you don't even know where Prescott is. So was that a big waste of your time? Probably, if you aren't looking for a house in Prescott. But what if you were? and what if you had the money, and you like what you saw, and you wanted to get more info? You call the agent, go see the house, love it, and buy it. I guess posting that ad in another city worked out for that agent huh? The fact is that posting ads in multiple cities CAN work for you, depending on what you are trying to sell.
First off, let's be clear. Craigslist does NOT like you posting ads in multiple cities. It's against their suggested guidelines and maybe the TOU (Terms of Use) and if they find you doing it, they can shut down your account. What's more, some users don't like it and they will flag you for doing it. So what? you think to yourself. I can get flagged as much as I want and nothing happens right? i just have to post it again. Wrong... If you get flagged more than 8 times (approx) , your get your account placed on hold. Is that a big deal? Not really because you just get another gmail account, register a new Craigslist account, and go from there. Is it a pain in the neck? Absolutely. Additionally, there are some rumors floating around the web that if you get too many accounts placed on hold, Craigslist will block your IP address, which means that you don't get to use CL again, at least not from that computer.
But back to the original question, does it work? By work, if you mean driving more people to your website, then yeah, it does. It works especially well if you are trying to promote little items like jewelry and get people to click on your website. Does posting real estate in non-local areas (i mean posting in a different state for non-local) work and drive people to your site? Maybe, but let's be realistic. Do you really want users in Portland clicking on your site when they are never going to move to Arizona? Probably not. Keep focused on your local markets and you will be much better off!