I’ve used Craigslist off and on for the past year to find buyers for properties, build a cash buyer’s list in my local area, and find motivated sellers to make offers to. The reason why I say “off and on” is because I could never find my groove and work Craigslist consistently. Mostly because I thought it was a drag to scour through all of the ads. In the past I’ve seen some tools that are supposed to make it easy to find the types of Craigslist ads you’re looking for and send follow up emails with a click of a button. I’ve never used any of those, but I recently learned of a free tool that has made working with Craigslist much more bearable. Whether you outsource this work (I do!) or do it yourself, SearchTempest is definitely worth a look.
SearchTempest makes your searches easy…you can:
- search multiple cities at once
- search by distance from a specific city or zip code
- save your favorite searches
I suspect there’s more to the tool that I am yet to discover, but those perks right there are enough for me.
A little over a week ago, fellow BiggerPockets blogger Jason Hanson suggested a Craigslist marketing strategy that involved contacting absentee owners/landlords about doing lease options. He even put out a 30 day challenge encouraging people to give it a shot which was a great idea! Maybe lease options aren’t your thing, but SearchTempest can you help you with a number of other real estate investing strategies such as virtual wholesaling because you can find motivated sellers in numerous target markets with a simple click of the mouse.
One of the things you’ll want to do when using SearchTempest is take advantage of negative keywords (in fact, you can use negative keywords on Craigslist as well so this isn’t unique to SearchTempest). For example, let’s say you’re looking for deals in the Arlington area of Jacksonville, Florida but you don’t like to deal with condominiums or townhouses.
What you’re going to do is type in “Arlington -condo – townhouse – townhome” in the “What” field and of course complete the other criteria such as minimum and maximum price and bedrooms. The negative keywords are super helpful because you’ll remove a ton of ads that you don’t want to waste your time looking through.
I hope this small tip is helpful to you for your Craigslist marketing efforts! If you make it a regular habit to do your favorite searches via a tool like SearchTempest you should definitely get some solid leads and deals!
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28 Comments
Awesome post as always Shae. I’m gonna check them out right now. You have my mind racing with new ideas. Thanks.
Thanks Khary! I like to get minds racing…. 🙂
Great resource Shae! You hit a homerun with this. I was just looking for something like this for the same reasons you said. Everytime I search CL its like my brain is fighting me and I want to take a nap or something. I am checking them out right now…
-Matt
You know I’m always lookin’ out for my man, Matt! 😉
Thanks for the terrific and helpful info Shae. Like many, I’ve been looking for a way to make using Craigs List easier and more productive. Thanks again for sharing.
You bet, Bob!
This is a very practical article. Thanks a lot. Did i miss if there is a fee for this tool?
It’s free! Enjoy 🙂
Shae, how do you get your picture in the blog comments section? I have picture in my profile on the forums but a blank face here on the blogs.
Check out Gravatar.com and you can have a photo that follows you all around the web when you comment!
Thank you very much Shae. I immediately checked out SearchTempest and it is a terrific resource. I will definitely use this tool moving forward. By the way, thanks for the Gravatar.com
tip as well.
You’re welcome, Anthony! Have a great weekend 🙂
Shae, thanks for the tip.
You’re welcome, Edwin! Nice photo….you have a winning smile 🙂
Nice. Has anyone found a good free tool for posting apartments on craigslist?
Hi Matt! I haven’t found a solid CL auto posting software yet. Most people I know do what I do — hire virtual assistants to manually post.
Any good priced VAs?
Check out odesk.com and elance.com as a starting point.
Wow Shae. Thanks for this one. I never even head of Search Tempest, but will definitely give it a look. This will save my VA some time. lol Craigslist is an on and off gig with me too. They’re getting more strict these days.
Yes J, they are….I understand why, but its irritating. LOL!
Great post…I had no idea this type of technology was even available for Craigs List.
Happy to help!
I just ended up on the site and remembered this post. What a great time-saver! I’ve gone and shared it again via FB & Twitter in the hopes that more people read this and improve their productivity. Thanks again Shae!
Yeah its a GREAT tool. Glad you find it useful, Josh!
are you still using searchtempest? if so have you found a motivated seller where you actually purchased or wholesaled the home?
Haven’t used it for awhile now, but that’s only because I’m focused on securing additional private lenders now (I’m in buying & holding mode). However, I know people who are using it successfully. Craigslist works…you just have to keep at it.
Really great post! I like craiggers more than searchtempest, but recently came across yourlist.com. I haven’t had a chance to check it out in depth yet, but plan on checking it out this weekend. Would love to hear your thoughts on it too! I’m sure it’s got more features than I’d be able to find on my own. 🙂
Thanks for the tip!! I just tried out Search Tempest and I am making it my new way of scraping for potential deals along side my other marketing methods.