How to Get [High-Quality] Real Estate Leads from Craigslist

As a real estate agent, you have surely heard about Craigslist. This isn’t just a device to buy or sell properties but to advertise your business too. That’s why we are delivering a guide on how to get real estate leads from Craigslist.

Regardless of whether your business is just starting out, or if you want to reach more potential customers, Craigslist will undoubtedly broaden your extent. This online retail site is popular because of its free-of-cost nature and down-to-earth strategy. As an agent, you can use it to reach out to the local audience via free listings. 

Real Estate Sales on Craigslist

Craigslist is one of numerous online buying and selling sites. What sets it apart from others is its simplicity and the fact that one can buy and sell almost anything, from antiques and refrigerators to real estate. People, meaning both owners and agents or brokers, can advertise any type of property: land, home, or condo.

Buying Real Estate on Craigslist

An agent or broker will mostly find buyer leads when on Craigslist, about which we will talk about shortly. But as our headline on how to get real estate leads from Craigslist focuses not only on buyer leads, we need to take into consideration seller leads too. 

There is a strategy for capturing seller leads on Craigslist. When you look at the “Housing” segment of the site, you can see that not all listings are made by agencies. On the contrary, more than half of the listings are FSBO or For sale by owner. 

Most of these FSBOs contain contact information in the ad copy, with an e-mail or phone number, or both. In any case, if you find the property appealing, analyze and give it a rough estimate, to find it vastly differing from the original sum advertised, contact the seller. Make sure to break the ice by stating a number different from their listing price, if this is the case. 

If not, treat it like another cold call or e-mail. Don’t be discouraged, Craigslist can be an innovative source for generating seller leads too. 

How to Get Real Estate Leads from Craigslist 

When looking for buyer leads, one needs to know how to upload an online listing. Here are the 6 easy steps in how to get real estate leads from Craigslist:

#1 - Create an Account

Creating an account on Craigslist before posting a listing is something you need to do as a real estate agent. It doesn’t just make the editing and renewing process easier; it creates confidence in you as an agent, with your potential leads. Making an account is easy, so don’t shy away from creating one. 

#2 - Create Listing

Navigating Craigslist categories is effortless, you will have to first click on “Post”. After that, click “Housing offered”, and since you are a broker or agent, you will select “Real Estate by broker”. If you do this correctly, your listing will appear on the first page of the local housing category and will attract new leads ready to buy the property. 

#3 - Add Details

Before editing your listing, accept the Craigslist guidelines. After you do this, fill in these requirements: 

• Title - Make it interesting! Your title needs to stand out in the crowd, or it will go unnoticed. 

• Location - Needles to say, don’t forget to add the full address of the property. Not just to pinpoint the location for interested leads, but to make it more accessible to the leads that want to see you and the house in person. Make sure to later add the location to the map, too. 

• Description - Use the body or description to highlight the most important facts about your listing. Highlight what leads might find alluring, and always make sure to add a clear but compelling call to action. This short but valuable sentence will turn lookers into leads. 

   

#4 - Add Price

Below the details, you will find a segment where you can add the price, availability, square feet, and other important house information. You can leave these fields blank, but we discourage that. In fact, some users filter through listings by these fields, meaning that it might filter your listing out of their search, even though it fits their needs. Therefore, by leaving the information blank, you risk losing potential customers, too. 

#5 - Add Photos

One picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of your Craigslist listing, this applies as well. Photos are key factors in how to get real estate leads from Craigslist, and they need to showcase the interesting and value-adding features of your property. Make sure the pictures aren’t blurry, are easy to understand and offer different points of view. On the contrary, don’t add all of them. Pick a few that showcase the best angles and views and use them. 

#6 - Publish and Repost

As the last step of how to get real estate leads from Craigslist, publish your listing and wait for those calls to come in. After 45 days, if your listing isn’t deleted or sold, you will need to repost it. So, before they remove your original post from the site, repost your listing. 

Tips on How to Get Real Estate Leads from Craigslist

After looking through both of our guides to buying and selling real estate listings as an agent on Craigslist, here are some tips on how to do it more effectively. We use these hacks:

• Write a great headline: A headline will get your leads engaged, and will make your listing more noticeable in the sea of mediocre listings. 

• Plan reposting: If you want to commit to Craigslist lead generation, add reposting and posting to your business calendar.

• Ask for a Showing: Once that first call comes in, try to convert it into a lead. Ask for their e-mail and send them the whole listing. If they’re interested, ask if they’re free for a house showing. This way, you can solidify your lead and, hopefully, sell. 

   

Conclusion

That was a short but informative look at generating real estate leads from Craigslist. The catch is to only advertise active listings and be territory-specific. Follow through our guide to learn how to set a listing up for sale, search for seller-leads, and a few tips to make your journey more successful. 

We hope our article helped you in learning how to get real estate leads from Craigslist, and that your new business strategy will bear fruit.