An Effective Craigslist Marketing Strategy

Besides direct mail there’s another marketing method that is doing well for me right now. It’s completely free and it takes me about 10 minutes a day to do. Actually, I don’t do it myself anymore, but it takes my assistant Lisa about 10 minutes every day.

Also, the reason I’m writing about it today is because is I’m currently evaluating several potential deals from this method (sub-2’s and lease options). What am I referring to exactly? Well, you’re probably not going to be too excited (I’ll tell you why in a moment) but I’m referring to Craigslist.

The reason you’re probably not too excited is because you’ve probably tried Craigslist before. But I’m willing to guess the reason you didn’t get any deals from the site is because you didn’t have a strategy and you didn’t have quality advertising.

Here’s my Craigslist Strategy:

First, I only go after absentee landlords. I go to the “for rent” section and I find the type of houses I like to do deals on: 3 bed/2bath, bread and butter houses. Then I simply email them. (I’ll give you the exact email I use in a minute).

Now, just as with any marketing method, it only works when you are consistent. I recommend emailing at least 5 landlords per day, five days a week. That will mean you send 100 emails a month and if you truly do this, you could realistically get a deal a month just off Craigslist.

So why doesn’t everyone do this?

Because it takes discipline. Most people will not force themselves to email 5 landlords every single day of the week. The way I solved this problem is that I did it first thing in the morning, at the same time every day. I schedule my day by the minute so my schedule would look something like 6:10-6:20 email landlords on Craigslist. And once you get in this routine it’s easy to stay there. If you don’t do it one day you’ll feel guilty and like you missed something.

So as I promised, the word-for-word ad I use is below. This has made me and my friends who I’ve shared this ad with a lot of money. One more thing. I’d like to give you a quick 30 day challenge. For 30 days follow the above plan of sending out the daily emails. Then shoot me an email a month from now and let me know how many deals you closed.

Now to the ad…

Your property looks very good. I was wondering if you might be interested in a lease with option to buy, with the property. This is where I would rent the property from you and you would allow me to buy it down the line. In a lease option, I would lease the house from you for a period of 3-5 years and then purchase it during the term. During the term, I would GUARANTEE the rent and, maintenance and when I bought the property, you would save 6% on Realtor’s fees and I would pay almost all of the closing costs (because I’m not a Realtor, I don’t charge you any fees or commissions). Landlords love this program, because they get guaranteed rent, even if the property is vacant.

I know this might sound a little confusing, so please email me back and I will be happy to explain everything.

Have a great day and please let me know if you are interested in a hassle free rental of this property. If you are not interested now, please keep this in mind in the future. Also, please visit our website for more information on how we assist landlords. Thank you.

P.S. Don’t forget to ask for our free special report, “The 5 little-known ways to eliminate tenant hassles forever.”

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.