Craigslist- Buy A Home OR A Hooker
Many Realtors advertise on Craigslist and between brokerages have seen success from minor to moderate to even phenomenal. Therefore, I do agree that it is a popular search tool for many buyers and should be in Realtors’ arsenal of marketing tools. The only problem is that most of us don’t venture past the “housing” section of Craigslist to know that one of the most popular draws of Craigslist is the “personals” section. It is common knowledge that Craigslist’s success began with the “personals” and “for sale” sections. Some of the personals range from questionable to pornographic. Looking to buy a ball-gag wearing bedroom slave? Look no further than the famed Craigslist.
That’s great for those in the market for a slave, but did you even know that the same venue you post clients’ homes on is used for this purpose? Some places are taking action, but I’m disappointed that others have not followed suit. Now, I’m all for free speech and I’m surely not one for shutting down any portion of a free venue, but if you ever read through the personals, you will be shocked at the level of illegal activity on the pages regardless of the “terms of service.” Let’s say a minor is shopping for their first car on Craigslist- pornography for sale is one click away, and I’m not talking about dirty magazines, I’m talking about graphic advertisements for lude acts either free or for sale. It is a hot bed for predators and a disgusting platform used for solicitation. If you wouldn’t put “for sale” flyers in a dominatrix brothel allowing children to enter, why would you be comfortable advertising homes on Craigslist where one click away are things for sale you probably didn’t know existed!?!? I’m not a prude, I’m a grown woman; but I think it is irresponsible that Craigslist continue to be touted as the media darling while social networking sites are being beat up on in the media and in court for their lack of safeguards.
If the ”personals” section of the site is removed, Cragislist will be a much better tool, not to mention safer environment that may come a tad closer to reflecting the ethics Realtors have vowed to follow. The traffic may decrease to your homes from the people that while searching for a prostitute or a free stove realize they might be interested in buying a home to put their prostitute and free stove in.
I think it’s worth the risk, and I ask Craigslist to consider removing their personals section, especially since it has failed and due to the size of the task will continue to fail to be moderated to be kept safe.
August 30th, 2007 at 2:59 am
Thanks for the info. I agree with you 100%
Ouch. I can’t believe I just checked the personals section on Craigslist. I have never gone outside the “real estate” section before.
Now my wife will think I’m looking at w4m erotic services. Thanks a lot.
Hmmm…time to delete my cache and temporary files.
August 30th, 2007 at 3:29 am
Interesting point, and I agree with you. However, I think you could easily rewrite the entire article, exchanging the word “Craigslist” with word “internet” and you would still be on target.
August 30th, 2007 at 4:29 am
Marc- glad to open new worlds for ya!
Knet- it’s about co-mingling Realtor ethics with illegal acts; you know that it should never be done.
I disagree that the word “Craigslist” and “Internet” are interchangable because Craigslist is a commerce site.
Realtor.com, Trulia.com, citycribs.com, oodle.com, edgeio.com, Zillow.com and other Real Estate related sites manage just fine without unethically allowing the possibility for sex acts to be sold.
That is not the point, however- the point remains that Craigslist is an unsafe environment that harbors prostitution and predatory acts and although it is a great tool for listing homes, Realtors should take action to have Craigslist clean up their act.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:30 am
[...] Craigslist - Buy A Home OR A Hooker [...]
September 3rd, 2007 at 1:02 am
[...] Lani Anglin, Craigslist- Buy A Home OR A Hooker [...]
September 4th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
I appreciate you taking the time to respond my post. I agree with you 100%. You will not find my listings on Craigslist. Every attempt I have made to do business on Craigslist has resulted in me meeting people that I would not care to do business with. Every kind of scam artist and predator you can imagine can be found on Craigslist… and the internet. You are always, “just one click away” from someone or something with less than good intent or fair commerce in mind. It is not so much where you find your information as it is who is providing the information you found, and knowing that individual’s motives. Make sure you understand why the North Korean Consulate needs your help to get their money or why a 3 million dollar mansion is being hawked on a free site for 1.5 million OBO, Today only call international code; 01-…. Thats all I’m say’n. Great blog. Thanks for chat.
September 5th, 2007 at 1:21 am
Well this is an interesting read but…
Why would you presume that Craigslist is first and foremost a real estate related site (like the others you list out)? And if its not a real estate site, then how do Realtor ethics apply to the site at large (as opposed to the content of the real estate postings)?
Craigslist certainly doesn’t claim to be primarily real estate centric. And I fail to see how objectionable (subjectively) content in other unrelated areas of the site are the responsibility or concern of the agent. This is FAR different from a broker opening up a community posting section of their own site and allowing this type of personals content.
Many newspapers have semi-explicit personals sections. Here in NYC that applies to everyone other than the NY Times and WSJ I think. Yet the Real Estate classifieds sections continue to be used there.
Craigslist is a community meeting ground with all kinds of content. Deciding whether or not to post your properties there is of course every agent’s choice. I will say that in this marketplace a great number of people use Craigslist as their primary search grounds for homes. Perhaps not so much at the top end of the market, but not using Craigslist would certainly cut into a properties exposure.
September 5th, 2007 at 2:37 am
[...] week, I wrote an article calling Craigslist to remove their personals section. I was genuinely surprised that the response wasn’t bigger, but I did get several emails [...]
September 5th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
New York Times.
FWIW, I think all of this is nobody’s business. There are many things on the net that I don’t like. I “protect” myself by not going to those places. When it comes to things to be afraid of, lonely people looking for a facsimile of love are a lot lower on my list than the busybodies with guns in the Times article.
September 6th, 2007 at 5:39 am
[...] raises the exact same issue on her blog, and I agree with her: The only problem is that most of us don’t venture past the [...]
September 7th, 2007 at 6:36 am
[...] week, I had it on my mind to address my feelings about Craigslist and the timing couldn’t be better. A few days later, the NY Times wrote an article about [...]