Have any of you been flagged and removed from Craig's list? What do you think were the reasons? I can't imagine why my ad was removed unless it was relisted within the 45 day period.
I suspect it was applicants turned down. Ever happen to you? From a dissatisfied customer, so to speak?
Honolulu, HI · Member since 2008 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
19y
I have had good success with Craigslist for AVERAGE properties, but low end stuff gets nothing. High end properties work pretty well too, especially with the capability to upload pics. I also "pre-advertise" hard to rent units immediately when I know, or even suspect, they will be going vacant.
Another site that works well in my local market is the DODreferral.com housing site.
It covers all branches of service, all base locations, so families transferring in tend to check it first.
Other than those, for free, many hospitals and colleges have some type of online or at least a 3x5 card system board! Also, as another poster mentioned, your local Housing Authority and various Social Services organizations if you really want to deal with subsidized housing.
I limit paid advertising to the ONE local newspaper that has the largest readership and/or hands down the most rental ads.
Real Estate Investor · London · Member since 2008 · 3k+ posts · 74 votes
19y
Signs in the window have always worked well for me when renting SFR. Much better than many other channels.
I tend to have an outgoing message that provides a description. When renting in areas that attract the wrong type of renters I make it clear that I will be screening all applications, there is a fee and what ever else makes sense and is legal. Nothing too long but I do find that the quality goes up for those who leave a message.
I also focus on an open event where multiple people come by at the same time. Saves me the time to travel to a home when the applicant is going to be a no show. All applications are filled out on the spot so less room for folks to go home and cook up a good story.
Much of the above came from a city produced guide for landlords. They wanted to reduce crime in the city and found that better educated landlords resulted in fewer problems and police calls.
I am wondering for those of you who post theri rentals on Craig list if you get TONS of junk mail. The frist time I post mine on Craiglist I got like average of 3-5 e-mails from people supposedly in Africa and Canada. I wonder if I did something wrong.
We advertised our rental on craigslist, hotpads.com, google, mls and a sign in the yard. We got one drive by call, one MLS showing and probably 4-5 calls a week from craigslist.
Im in NY and have had Huge Sucess with Craigslist.com. I think craigslist sucess has to do with the area ythat you are in and how well it is covered by craigslist
Real Estate Investor · Mont Belvieu, TX · Member since 2008 · 85 posts · 35 votes
19y
Craigslist doesn't work for us-- too far away from the big city I guess :roll:
Our local paper puts ads both online and in print. The phone rings off the hook. Once, the ad went in the paper but the ad department forgot to put it online and we didn't get a single call-- pretty obvious which one folks are looking at :type:
Signs in the yard have mixed success depending on the neighborhood, but we always try that first, as soon as we know a vacancy is upcoming as it's the least expensive option :wink:
Since ads in our local newspaper doesn't usually yield anything every property management company in town (and there are alot) and realtor that has a house or apartment complex to rent is listing on Craigslist. I think it was 100% more useful and responses better when it was focused on the individual rather than commercial conglomerates. Now, you're off of the front page of Craigslist in a few days.
I even saw one where a woman was trading herself for free rent. Can you believe it? Wonder how many responses she'll get. It will be interesting to see if her ad stays on because alot of people ought to be flagging it as inappropriate.
I just ran an ad today for a medium rental house and it's on Craig's list. Interestingly I didn't have time to load the pix so I just said they were available upon request. Got 7 emails for the pix but no callers to show.
What's that about? Someone doing a survey?
If your rental is near a military base - a great way to rent is to advertise in the housing office on base. You have to jump through a couple of hoops (they usually have someone from base housing come out and inspect your property to insure its not a dump) - but the potential tenants you reach are fabulous. I LOVE military renters - guaranteed income (no lay-offs in the military!), generally respectful people, and if something goes wrong (unpaid rent, damage to property) - you know where they work and their commanding officers usually don't take well to unpaid bills by their troops!
I have to agree with allcash in that yard signs work very well. We've also recently started using myrealtylister along with our yard sign and newspaper ad. Along with the searchable listing ID it also has a "listings manager" and a "View My Listing" page so if we have more than one apartment available in the same building they can see them all on one page.