Brokerages: Have you ever posted your listings on Craigslist?
If Craigslist is available in your area, this could be a great free tool to use for your brokerage to help marketing its listings. It is not very time consuming and Craigslist has quite a large audience. If you are a real estate brokerage, you should consider implementing this strategy for all of your regular listings and pre-mls listings and funneling traffic to your brokerage website and calls to services like CallAction.
Just remember, in addition to any photos or property details that you include directly in your post, you will certainly want to be sure to include a link directing the prospective buyer or investor back to your brokerage or agent website.
Not only will this increase the traffic and reach of your site, but once they are there, your new visitor can continue browsing all available listings that you have to offer on your website. Hopefully, they can also access all available listings in your MLS if you offer a home search option on your site. Best of all, ANY listing they want more information for now is your new lead that can flow right into your real estate brokerage CRM and your real estate intranet.
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Ready to get started posting homes on Craigslist?
Here’s a step by step guide.
- Find the Craigslist in your area.
- Once there, choose “Post to Classifieds”.
- Click “Housing Offered”.
- Next, you will be prompted to choose which type of property you are listing. Most likely “Real Estate by Broker”.
- You will then be asked to choose the community nearest you.
- Once that’s all complete, you will be brought to the listing details page. Note that all fields in green are required.
- After you’ve entered your property information, click to continue and then you can choose if you would like to include a map with your post.
- If you want to add photos, you can do so on the next screen. Each listing allows for up to 8 photos.
- You’re almost done! Craigslist will generate an email sent to you to confirm this post.
- Click “Continue” and confirm your email. Done!
Things to consider when posting listings
Use an engaging title! Your title should also include the key words of property type (“apartment”, “town home”, “retail space”, etc.), the words “for sale” and the area the home is listed in.
Choose quality photos so the prospective buyer can get a good idea of the home. Also, don’t skip any steps for the property details. Does the home have beautiful landscaping? Hardwood floors? Recent renovations? Great amenities? This is your space to make the home shine to the potential buyer!
Finally, make sure to list all of the ways the buyers can reach you. It may be a smart to include a phone number that helps you track inquiries and can even auto text the client back. For this we recommend a tool like CallAction.
Don’t give it all away! Remember, Craigslist can be a great tool to not only get the word out about your new listing, but also to bring in new visitors to your website. Chances are, this first home they clicked on through Craigslist may not end up being their dream home; but if they can click through to your website and continue with a customized search for all listings in your MLS based on what they’re looking for using your real estate brokerage IDX, then you just might have found your next buyer!
