Craigslist Shakes Up Real Estate for Sale Section

Craigslist Real Estate for Sale sectionCasual users of Craigslist may not have noticed a change last week to the Real Estate for Sale section. Recently, my bookmark for that section suddenly started showing fewer and fewer listings.

Around August 4, it appears the ‘real estate for sale’ category was split into ‘for sale by broker‘ and ‘for sale by owner‘ buckets. Fortunately, the company kept the ALL category alive, but is now addressed as http://portland.craigslist.org/rea/ (instead of /rfs).

I saw complaints about the previous real estate for sale section, like, “Why do brokers put their listings here (multiple times), when there is already an MLS?” The new categorization solves that issue if you just want to see owner listings. But when I looked in the ‘by owner’ section today, it seemed rife with spam, foreclosure ‘help’ ads, and other money schemes. Some policing will be needed.

Another thought, with the split, is Craigslist prepping to charge Portland brokers to advertise their listings like they do in NYC? We shall see.

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August 7, 2008 · Filed Under First-Time Buyers, National News, Relocation, Selling Advice

Comments

6 Responses to “Craigslist Shakes Up Real Estate for Sale Section”

  1. MIke on August 7th, 2008 11:06 am

    I noticed this a couple of days ago when I was posting some listing. I know 2 FSBO’s that sold on there but I have never received calls for any of my listings. As compared to 2005 and 2006, I think with the higher inventory, people don’t lsearch craigslist for homes as before.

  2. Jeff Bernheisel on August 8th, 2008 11:41 pm

    Craig mentioned that they were looking into charging for services in some new cities (to combat the spam problem) while he chatted at Inman Connect last month… Portland may possibly be on that list.

    -Jeff

  3. Ron Ares on August 9th, 2008 1:40 pm

    Jeff, I knew I read something about that somewhere, figured it was in the Inman debriefs. I tell you what, the number of posts in CL by brokers would fall to about 5% of their current number. Which isn’t such a bad thing.

    There are some ‘black hat’ postings in there by prominent brokers, but I won’t name names. I just complain to CL…to no avail.

  4. Mike Rohrig on August 13th, 2008 10:50 am

    I just looked at the amount of owner listings and this what I found for the first 5 pages.

    1 – 7%
    2 – 9%
    3 – 31%
    4 – 17%
    5 – 17%

    Has any agent had their listing sold due to a Craigslist ad?

  5. Ron Ares on August 13th, 2008 7:28 pm

    Mike,

    What do you mean 7%, 9%, etc.? Actual owner-marketed properties?

    I used to get calls/emails from CL posts, but not anymore. They don’t even seem to work for open house announcements. However, I can always count on a little bump in website traffic when I link back to my site for photos.

    I do think some buyers watch CL specifically for specific situations. I wrote an offer this week for a buyer who found a unit on CL for something unique.

  6. Ohh…. Craig’s making some changes aga … | 4realz Hotlist on September 2nd, 2008 11:32 pm

    [...] Craig’s making some changes again.  I think it makes a ton of sense all around to split brokers listings from FSBOs. [...]

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