Opinions on using Craigslist vs. other rental websites

[Joe Calderon]

Craigslist is an amazing website for networking with people that want to buy, sell, or get rid of stuff. It's also used to advertise homes and properties for rent.

However, Craigslist is also known for robberies and scams of personal items such as phones and gadgets. Inductively, it may be a poor source of potential tenants looking for homes and apartments, and other properties.

As always, precaution is a necessary measure. In using Craigslist to obtain leads for tenant positions, what has been the result on first impression and post-rental?

[Chris Martin]

I'll stick with postlets.com. Quality of responses is better than CL... and listings are syndicated through other similar sites.

[Russell Brazil]

In my market of Washington DC, probably 80% of all rentals are filled through Craigslist.

How tenants are places is going to be so market specific.  In Boston, rentals are dominated by real estate agents. DC it is Craigslist. Im sure there are markets that are heavy to Zillow or Trulia.

[Chris Martin]

I'll stick with postlets.com. Quality of responses is better than CL... and listings are syndicated through other similar sites.

[Gail K.]

Our craigslist is flooded with repeat ads for the same apartment complexes; easy for ones ads to get lost in this mess.

Better luck going through Postlets with responses from Zillow and Trulia.com.

Gail

[Ryan Dossey]

I really only mess with postlets. 

I have used CL for YEARS for music gear, motorcycles, and furniture. 

Just like anything in Real Estate you need to have wisdom/discretion.

[Fred Heller]

I think the value of Craigslist depends on the market. When I lived in SF Craigslist was probably the #1 site for renters. I found my own rental on Craigslist. Here in Houston Craigslist is pretty much worthless. I'll post my rentals on Craigslist just to cover my bases, but usually only get one or two responses at best.

[Curtis Bidwell]

in the Olympia, WA area (1 hour south of Seattle) I use both Craigslist and Postlets.  I'm getting a comparable amount of response from each.  2 years ago and earlier it was all Craigslist to good advantage.

[Eric Tait]

I'm a huge postlets fan.  

[JD Martin]

I use them all - CL, Postlets, Trulia, etc - but I find that my professional looking sign in the yard, and referrals, has by far generated the best options for tenants. In every case, I direct traffic to our website, which keeps pictures and information about current rentals so that it can help screen some of the traffic. We also have all potential tenants leave a voice message regarding the property they are interested in, and we return their calls with a time that we will be holding an open house on the property as we don't do appointments. 

I have found that a lot of the CL traffic is not very sophisticated when it comes to our application process, such as online applications, credit & background checks, automated rent payment, etc. 

[Mike Nelson]

Here in Chicago I use Craigslist.  Years ago, I used Chicago Reader.

[David Stefanovic]

In my experience in Chicago, I have found very good tenants using Craigslist and Postlets.

[Jeff B.]

I'm with @Chris Martin and used Postlets - - added pictures (worth 1000 words) and it was rented in 2 weeks.  The syndication via Trulia + Zillow was helpful.

[Joey Nakayama]

Until this recently, I only used CL and had good luck with it. This year I used both CL and Postlets, and all of my applicants came through Postlets. 

CL was the only real game in town for a long time, but the usability has always been pretty crappy (the previously-mentioned flood of listings for a single apartment, lack of ability to search in more specific areas, etc.) 

Now that more user-friendly options like Zillow, Trulia, Hotpads, etc. are gaining traction, Postlets seems to be the way to go, at least in my market (NW side of Chicago). 

[Brie Schmidt]

I haven been using postlets for 3 years now and barely get anything from CL anymore - it all comes from postlets

[Account Closed]

We have ever only used rentlinx for our rental homes. 

[Percy N.]

Postlets is good.
For higher end units, the MLS rentals still get the best response rates in my market

[Sam Valme]

I personally have been renting my home for the past 5 years. I've had a lot of success with Craiglist. But nothing gets better then the good old fashion referral. With Facebook and other social media platforms. I've always had my room filled before the last tenant has left. I've also had some success posting on college boards.

[Byron Bohlsen]

Just use both. In my limited experience not only is it very local but quality of the unit/tenants. My luxury unit is all craigslist, my b/b- unit only 10-15 minutes away is all postlets.

[Sterling White]

@Byron Bohlsen I agree with your point on using both. Postlets has the feature to where you can copy the HTML and post in CL to make it look professional as you may have used