Thursday Morning Craig - Not
Sackett Street Fence. Photo by Alexis Robie Has anyone else found Craigslist getting more and more useles for townhouse sales? Maybe free listings are not particulary useful when dealing in items that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. (It seems to work a lot better for apartment rentals, though Craig has publicly discussed the tough…
Sackett Street Fence. Photo by Alexis Robie
Has anyone else found Craigslist getting more and more useles for townhouse sales? Maybe free listings are not particulary useful when dealing in items that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. (It seems to work a lot better for apartment rentals, though Craig has publicly discussed the tough issues in that arena too). Clearly the end-user (buyer) benefits from the self-selection that occurs when the New York Times charges a fee to list a property. Less “noise”, more quality. Is there anyone out there who found their townhouse through Craigslist? Is there anything Craig could be doing to improve the property sales section?
I bought my house via craigs list directly from the owner and got a great deal. You have to sift through a lot of crap but there are some gems; And when they appear they disapear the next day so you have to be vigalent about checking everyday.
I think the common thread here is the diligent broker. Those who feel they found a good deal through criagslist are happy with the broker, not the advertising medium. Those who were “driven into the arms” of the brokers were happy with there transactions and obviously needed the expertise of a broker (large or small) to make the process wok smoothly for them.
I’ve had great luck as both a renter and rentee with the “by owners” rental section of cl. Maybe, though, when you start talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars, you simply can’t be so sanguine. Perhaps one little hoop to jump through (small fee) would make it more useful for serious parties and less attractive to scammers.
Though I have to disagree with the poster who lamented the people you get through the Times listings that just do a “walk-through.” Of course you don’t want endless strangers traipsing through your house, but looking is legitimately part of the process.
I totally agree that agents and brokers should pay, in order to weed out the scammers. As an agent myself, I would love to stop hearing from people about the “$1200 Williamsburg 3 bedrooms” that they keep seeing on Craiglist — I tell them they don’t exist — half the time they end up coming back and half the time they end up living in Bushwick. That said, most customers off of craigslist are pretty dodgy themselves — I’m so tired of people calling in response to my posts in the Fee Broker section, always, to ask “and this is no fee, right?”
I found my (rental) apartment through craigslist–though it did require alot of wading through dodgy listings for places that either don’t exist (bait and switch to get you hooked into a broker) or are nowhere near what they are described as. My friends who just bought an apartment in clinton hill had the same issues and ultimately went through a broker but appreciated being able to learn the market through craigslist.
When we were looking, I spent countless hours obsessively sifting through craigslist listings, and was eventually driven into the arms of Corcoran.
CL is so frustrating – repetitive, shoddy listings from bottom-of-the-barrel brokers. However, it did give me a good sense of what was on the market in our price range. It always felt like chasing rainbows, so I’m glad to hear other people’s success stories.
Charging for listings might get rid of some of the jokers.
i agree with anon. if you’re put off by cragslistings then don’t look, just know that there’s always some good stuff that you’ll be missing out on. in my mind the process takes some work and weeding through the crap is part of it. viva la craig!
community spirit my ass. before craig started charging a paltry $25 to list a help wanted ad, that section was loaded with envelope-stuffing come-ons. i agree heartily with mike; charge money and you’ll see the garbage posts disappear.
Yes, it would be fantastic if someone could come up with a way to filter out all the crap you have to wade through to get to a good listing, i.e., all those listings that say they’re in one neighborhood, but when you call to see it, turns out it’s really not.
But the free aspect is what’s so great about it. It’s a free community board! To charge for the listings would really change the spirit of it. Although all of us capitalists have coopted it for our own purposes, it retains it’s community spirit. Viva La Craig!