After looking at a topic below this, it seems many of you have had success with craigslist “We Buy Houses” ads. I’ve been throwing those out there for over a year, although not consistently. I was wondering, am I putting them in the wrong category? Am I wording them improperly? What are you guys doing that I am not to be getting callers? I’d appreciate any input.
Mike.
I also had little to no luck with using Craig’s List at first. I would place an ad on Houses for Sale, by Owner.
It wasnt untill I started placing many ads. It takes a bit of creativity.
First you will need more email addresses, I have 4 just for placing ads. When you first get an account with CL they ask for a phone number to verify. I buy these cheap Trac Phones at Walmart that come with 10 minutes pre-loaded on them.
You cant place too many ads with each email so you will need to alternate,
then every 2 days renew your ads to place them at the top and keep placing new ads.
It wasnt untill I had a lot of ads running that I started doing a few deals off of Craig’s list. Even then the calls come in slow, You can go for weeks with no calls and then get 3 calls in one day.
You will also need to do the yellow letters to absentee owners, recruiting bird dogs, bandit signs and door knob hangers ect.
Also, I get many of my ads flagged and removed, I think its Realtors or my competition, I just keep reinserting them, eventually they get tired of flagging me, becase I have more perserverence. Did I spell that correctly?
It takes a bit of time and effort to get a lot of ads running, but soon all you have to do is renew them which is a simple as clicking the renew button. Also place ads in nearby towns and cities.
Often times I go months without seeing seeing any results and I ask myself is all this worth it?, then I will get a call that makes it all worthwhile.
Good luck, Rando
Craigslist sucks drain water for getting sellers to call you.
Sellers aren’t trained to call buyers. So, they don’t.
Seller are trained to get calls from buyers for houses they’re trying to sell.
On the other hand, sellers will check “other” houses for sale, in the “houses for sale” columns, to see how they compare on price, location, and what-not.
As a result, it’s better to sneak your “buying” ads into the “houses for sale” category, instead of the “housing wanted” category.
The “trick” of course is not getting flagged by the craigslist trolls for advertising in the wrong sections as a “buyer.”
One way that can work (for a while) is to mention that you buy AND sell houses.
You could actually advertise a house for sale, and then mention that you pay cash (or whatever your hook is) for houses, within your “house for sale” ads.
Meantime, if you precisely follow ‘craigslist’ rules, you’re screwed trying to get sellers to call ‘you.’
It’s interesting, I can see my competition on Craig’s List placing more ads and trying to keep up with my pace. Some even copying my ads almost word for word. I try to renew my ads every 2 days and the ads that get flagged and deleted I quickly re-insert.
It’s funny cuz I live in a big city but I get most of my calls from the smaller nearby rural towns.
I just got a call this morning from a lady that has a small house that’s been converted into a duplex, she was trying to sell it on CL for 60K I just got it on contract for 30K, sent the seller my agreement by email, got it signed and back by email. The entire process took a few hours including phone calls, txt and emails. I never got out of my chair.
Now, to get it sold.
I wouldn’t rely solely on CL for sellers, but I wouldn’t kick it aside either.
I have averaged 2-3 deals a year just by placing “I Buy Houses Any Area Any Condition”
on Craig’s List. Maybe I should cut them a check.
Rando
Rando, if we reverse analyze your “CL-postings-per-deal-ratio,” it would seem that you’re re-posting roughly 182 times a year (twice a day for a year), to get three deals a year, or having to make 60 posts to get one deal. That’s one deal from CL every four months.
That sounds right to me. Most people I know are not patient enough to make that work. I’m not.
Good post.
Haha, Javipa, you have an analytical mind. But my actual results are skewed from you analysis.
I believe I place about 20 - 25 ads pr week.
And I’m vacationing on the islands 4-6 months every year.
So, let’s say, 20 ads pr week = 80 ads pr month X 8 Months, 640 ads to do 2 deals, that’s 320 ads on Craig’s list to do 1 deal. Haha.
Sounds like a lot of work, but really once you write up one ad you can copy and paste your txt to each ad, and then every 2 days it’s simply a matter of re posting, (clicking the mouse).
Is that really too much work, to make an extra 10-20 Grand a year?
Now,Placing ads for bird dogs is another story.
Help me! I can’t breathe, that’s so much CL posting, Rando…!
It’s time to outsource that crap. There’s got to be some Chinese prison children somewhere, that can do that work for you…!
Haha, I do outsource some of my stuff, I have my sister do my Yellow Letters.
I have bird dogs out finding me houses.
But between Judge Judy, Bearing Sea Gold and flipping Vegas,
I don’t have anything to do. Spring and Summer is different.
I get Craig’s List Tweekers to hand out my door knob hangers.
You have to supervise them though, they seem absent minded, unfocused
and deranged, and that’s their good points.
I am seriously laughing so hard at your description…!!!
This really interesting.
Randy,
I noticed you do a lot of posting on Craigslist for your Real Estate Investment Business. We have posting software that automatically posts your ads for you up to every 10 minutes on Craigslist. The software will post up to 150 ads a day. The software also automatically renews your ads every 48 hours. No more manual posting and no more manually renewing. This is something that every Real Estate professional should definitely have. It will allow you to dominate Craigslist in your area. Check out our website www.realestateadblaster.com and call me anytime to discuss.
This service costs $250 a month, not a bad deal if it brought in multiple deals.
Rando
Maybe…and I’m always willing to see if new technology will make something easier or more profitable for me.
I would say with so many people out there with the “we buy houses” ads, it’s important to differentiate yourself.
When advertising vacant properties on CL, I have sometimes put things like:
“This is a real ad for a real house for rent in _________”
“I promise I won’t re-direct you to another website to harvest your information.”
I know people can copy anything, but I like to try and put phrases in there to let people know I’m posting a legit property for rent.
Craigslist has become very tough on advertisers, to be successful you must constantly change your ad, post in your area or use a HMA program to post outside your IP address and have multiple accounts with PVA’s. Expect to get atleast 50% of all your ads deleted daily, it can be really difficult to use craigslist successfully.
With Craigslist you have to remember that a lot of people are trying to get the most bang for their buck.Meaning they wanna milk the value of the property for as much as they can get. I’ve had different type of success with Craigslist but you have to stay consistent daily. It doesn’t work with out