BiggerPockets

are you a real estate agent?

The way that I have gotten deals on craigslist is by emailing the landlords in the for rent section, to see if they will do a lease option, or sell me the house.

Of course it is a numbers game and you have to email a lot of landlords to get a deal, but I got a good lease option deal not to long ago.

I've definitely had luck with craigslist in finding buyers. Why the need to post in multiple cities? Why SPAM the site?

Is it technically not spamming in your mind, or in the site's mind? Pull that here and your posts are removed. Pull it on CL and the same happens if they catch you.

Primo, I tried the approach you suggest above a long time ago. My very first day of contacting landlords I received a " nasty gram" from Craigslist saying they would not forward any more of my emails for 48hrs. If you are going to send multiple emails you can only send them to people who show their real address. With that said however, I've found calling is much more effective. It does take more time but they will tell you immediately if they have any interest. Either way I end the conversation by making sure they have my contact information for when they want to dump the property in the future. I've also found that craigslist has been taken over by realtors and property management companies making it difficult to get to the owners directly. More recently Backpage.com has produced more solid leads for me than craigslist as it is still new (to me) and mostly contains postings from the owners.

Do you have an example of the email you send? I'd be interested in seeing the approach you take to get them to respond.

I have had luck on Craigslist, by doing what Primo said. I go to the houseing for rent section, and have a simple one liner that says " Woudl you be interested in selling your house on a leas purchase basis? Thanks Mike Sedwick XXX-XXX-XXXX. I just keep cutting and pasting that line on each email I send to. After ten posts, though, CL stops accepting them and sends me a statement saying I am limited to 10 per day. I got alot of responses from these posts, so I do it every day if I can. Good Luck, Mike

Sorry for the confusion. I did not purchase that $5 thing he mentioned, so cannot endorse it. I was just relating my own experience posting on Craigslist. I was not limited other than doing 10 per day, in my local area. I do not know about posting in multiple states or cities. Thanks, Mike

Are you suggesting, Tracy, that your post above is the get-around to paying $25 per ad on Craigslist, or you would like someone to call you, or you think yours is an effective ad, or what...?

Since I don't know what " it" or " this" is, I'll drop the subject.

This was a good suggestion that you put up here...dude.....hope that it benefits all the ones who land up here.