Trouble finding tenants through craigslist. Any advice or tips?

[Squirl]

I've had good luck posting on Zillow and Trulia and padmapper. They are all free. I usually post to those and CL. I have only gotten one tenant from CL, the others came from these other sources I just listed.

[Becca8377]

I am an avid Craigslist user and I typically search for apartments on Craigslist. Here are my thoughts -

- People HATE postlets and they are also vaguely prohibited (rules say to use HTML sparingly). I personally will not respond to any ads using postlets because they are more likely a big corporation or a scam.

- Hit counters on ads are prohibited - if enough people get irked, your ad will be flagged off.

- Just be simple. Use text only - list all info and amenities. Add some pictures and you're done

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by STT Resident

Fortunately a few of us in my area do a daily "patrol" to weed out the scammers. We immediately report the obvious ones and, if in doubt, use anonymous email address to make contact with the advertisers and root them out that way. They run in packs and once they start getting dumped over and over again they give up for a while (and we're ready for their return)!

That's a great idea, but in my area it just wouldn't work - in fact the re brokerage I work for (and it's competitors) have full-time it guys posting ads all day long. They have hundreds of accounts & know all the tricks. Were talking 300-500 ads per day, per brokerage. I posted an ad for my rental and couldn't even find my own ad. The MLS got me a half-dozen showings a day.

[Kim in FL]

Originally Posted by STT Resident

Fortunately a few of us in my area do a daily "patrol" to weed out the scammers. We immediately report the obvious ones and, if in doubt, use anonymous email address to make contact with the advertisers and root them out that way. They run in packs and once they start getting dumped over and over again they give up for a while (and we're ready for their return)!

That's great that you guys do that!


At least twice a month the news puts out a PSA regarding craiglist scams. The biggest ones are for rentals and used cars. The saddest part is the amount of ppl falling for these scams and then blaming craigslist.