What are the best ways to search for homes online?

This is a great blog article from Jay Thompson on the different sites on the internet that you can search for homes locally. It talks about the differences between Zillow, Realtor, Trulia, MLS, etc. and which ones are the best and for what reasons. Jay neglects to mention Craigslist in his list of search engines and that is understandable because Craigslist is such a large database and is not designed specifically for home searching. I sent the author an email to see why he chose not to include such a popular site in his list. His response was that Craigslist is poorly designed for searching for homes and the total number of homes on the site is a small percentage of what is truly available on the market. However, he also said that he does post to such sites in order to get the highest amount of views out there for his clients, which is a good thing. While his analysis has some valid points, I think there are a few points that he might not have taken into consideration:

1. Craigslist is a starting point for buyers: Craigslist is very close to achieving standardization for classifieds search sites. If you want to understand standardiztion just think Google; do you use any of the other ten million search engines out there, or just Google? Google has become the industry standard. Why is the standardization of Craigslist important to real estate agents? Because its where buyers START THE PROCESS. So many home buyers begin their search on the site they know best, and that’s Craigslist. They go to check out whats in their area, see an ad they like, call the agent, and boom, you’ve got a lead.
2. Craigslist is built for browsing: People sit and look for crap on Craigslist all day long. That’s why there are 1000 ads a day posted to the Phoenix Real Estate site. There are a ton of hooks in the ocean, but there is also a lot of fish swimming around. I will give you this, there are way too many Residential-real-estate-for-sale ads on CL; so much that it is rare to get a single solid lead after a few weeks of TOP Posting. However, there is NO BETTER PLACE for marketing rental properites or Lease-Purchase Options on the Web. If you post a house or apartment for rent or especially an LPO on Craigslist, you will get calls.
3. Craigslist gets your name out there: If you search for a certain property type long enough, you start to see the same people posting the same types of properties. For example, one of our clients Jim uses EZ Posting to list properties in the commercial real estate section. Because his name is out there more and more, people who are searching  for commercial real estate see Jim’s name pop up a lot. Even if he doesn’t have the exact property they want, people know that Jim handles a lot of Scottsdale commercial leasing and they are more apt to call him because they see his inventory on the Web.

So is Craigslist the answer to your marketing woes? Nope. But it can go a long ways in improving your online presence. Its true that CL isn’t the greatest site for searching for homes, but its a place where a LOT of buyers begin the process. They see a property they like, give the agent a call, and all the sudden you have a solid lead, which we all know is a great thing to have.

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