Craigslist- why should you care?
Last 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 officers posing on Craigslist as prostitutes and soliciting “Johns” (then arresting them of course). No, NYT doesn’t read RE Revealed… that said, it IS a prominent issue in today’s real estate marketers’ minds (not just in MY mind).
- RE Revealed wrote a follow up article.
- Athol picked up the story in his Feed Bag article roundup.
- Shailesh agreed with my position that Craigslist may reflect poorly upon Realtors posting ads
You don’t need a Harvard degree to know that in marketing perception is reality. In most cases the medium used to convey the message defines the messenger. In Real Estate the product is the agent. The house is a by-product. An agent attracts the type of buyer he or she seeks. So, this begs the question: What kind of product are you? Do you want to work with Shrek or Lord Farquaad?
- Then today, Inman picked up the Craigslist story and asks
Where’s the real estate connection here? (Hopefully it’s indirect.) It’s another discussion about online liability, and the potential problems with user-generated content on Web sites.
This is IMPORTANT- there are so many different solutions to what clearly is a problem, and we invite you to blog about your perspective on the liability you have as a Realtor when using Craigslist.
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Make sure to link to this article so readers can follow your thoughts!
September 7th, 2007 at 7:29 am
Just for the record, I’m personally in favor of the legalization of prostitution for all the standard arguments. America has the worst record of rape and sexual violence towards women in the western world, time to look abroad for better ideas I think.
That being said, this is all a red herring to real estate issues. The people that use Craigslist for real estate already know about the adult section. And I suspect they don’t care about it one way or the other.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Athol, thanks for opining
You and I may have differing opinions on what is legal and what is not, but that’s neither here nor there… the sad thing is that I’ve had several emails from people who are embarassed that they didn’t know about these other sections (don’t worry y’all, I won’t name you!).
Regardless of whether or not Craigslist will ever do anything about it, we have to be aware of the venues we use to market our clients’ investments. Amazing that some folks don’t know, isn’t it?
September 7th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Ironically you’ve done more to publize the availablity of these escort ads on Craigslist than anyone else in the RE community. For every email you got saying “oh no!”, how many other RE people suddenly became interested in Craigslist?
September 7th, 2007 at 10:14 am
TOUCHE!
September 7th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
I am not an agent but I have used the real estate section of Craigslist to sell one home and to find tenants for my rental properties. (markets: Austin, Shreveport, Lebanon-Hanover)
Each experience in the real estate section of craigslist has been very, very successful.
If I had a real estate agent that didn’t use Craigslist I would not consider them very internet savvy nor a good marketer.
September 8th, 2007 at 3:17 am
Roxanne, thanks for coming by! We too have had great success with Craigslist and as I’ve said before, Realtors SHOULD have it as a tool in their toolbox. I maintain that it would be a better tool if it were held to an acceptable standard. Just make the personals a separated section/website requiring login (with age verification like porn sites require).