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I've got some land that I'm considering selling on Craiglist. However, I'm worried that, unlike Ebay, there is no way to check a person's reputation - and I've heard that Craiglist is notorious for scammers.
Is there any way I can trade on Craiglist without being scammed?
The scammers are out there but I got hit with spam so bad I had to delete, argue with the admin. of the site and change all my passwords. NEVER AGAIN.............
Why don't you use a Realtor and avoid the headaches. Your Realtor will post your property not only on Craigslist but on hundreds of other sites. They will field the calls and emails and make your life much easier. They have access to checking out your buyer's financial state and info as well. There are some very nice, knowledgeable Realtors that would be happy to help you. Interview a few and see which one you click with. Good Luck!
I've got some land that I'm considering selling on Craiglist. However, I'm worried that, unlike Ebay, there is no way to check a person's reputation - and I've heard that Craiglist is notorious for scammers.
Is there any way I can trade on Craiglist without being scammed?
Use Craigslist email for responses.
At least that will let you read the other email without exposing your email address.
You might put your own phone number in for the locals.
All Craigslist really amounts to is a marketing venue.
Craigslist doesn't change the dynamics of the transaction. Both parties still have to perform due diligence.
If you can't get comfortable with it, you might hire an attorney or a real estate agent as your representative.
I've got some land that I'm considering selling on Craiglist. However, I'm worried that, unlike Ebay, there is no way to check a person's reputation - and I've heard that Craiglist is notorious for scammers.
Is there any way I can trade on Craiglist without being scammed?
I have successfully bought and sold many things on Craigslist. Not property, but I have advertised my listings there. What you need to do is NOT post your email address or phone # in your ad. When someone responds to your ad, craigslist will relay the message to you and then you take it from there.
Like some of the other posters suggested, if you are going to do this as a FSBO, you need a very good real estate lawyer to advise and help to guide you. They can handle all the paperwork required. Good luck
I thought I would share my most recent experience with Craigslist here, since it seems appropriate.
The last personal home that I sold i put on CL, using the CL, anonymous reply email option as others in this thread have suggested, and no phone number or address of the home.
A few days after posting my home, I got an email from CL saying that my ad had been spoofed. In a nutshell, they pointed out that someone in another state had copied my ad verbatim, and they had listed my home as a rental property, charging folks who may be interested a non-refundable "screening fee". The folks at CL said that this is happening more and more often and they are catching it more times than not buy cross-referencing ad copy to look for duplicates. They say that they can't do this with copy that is just one very large flyer, JPG or other image.
While CL can't do much more than this, they do recommend staying informed by doing a Google news search for "craigslist real estate scam" which provides plenty of great articles about the latest and greatest scams out there. The Rocky Mountain News had one that was nearly identical to mine titled "New scam out of Africa rents Denver homes on Craigslist"
I thought I would share my most recent experience with Craigslist here, since it seems appropriate.
The last personal home that I sold i put on CL, using the CL, anonymous reply email option as others in this thread have suggested, and no phone number or address of the home.
A few days after posting my home, I got an email from CL saying that my ad had been spoofed. In a nutshell, they pointed out that someone in another state had copied my ad verbatim, and they had listed my home as a rental property, charging folks who may be interested a non-refundable "screening fee". The folks at CL said that this is happening more and more often and they are catching it more times than not buy cross-referencing ad copy to look for duplicates. They say that they can't do this with copy that is just one very large flyer, JPG or other image.
While CL can't do much more than this, they do recommend staying informed by doing a Google news search for "craigslist real estate scam" which provides plenty of great articles about the latest and greatest scams out there. The Rocky Mountain News had one that was nearly identical to mine titled "New scam out of Africa rents Denver homes on Craigslist"
Enjoy!
Good post!
Yes, spoofing like this happens, and it happens often on rentals also.
So the official line from Craigslist is to use something like a Real Estate Shows flyer, or Postlets, to reduce the chance of spoofing?
Thanks. I hadn't thought of it that way.
I've had my house on CL for several months. I've gotten some responses from it with no problems. I think it's fine to use, but you just have to feel ppl out. I've also sold and bought several items on CL with no problems, only awesome deals!
Yes, spoofing like this happens, and it happens often on rentals also.
So the official line from Craigslist is to use something like a Real Estate Shows flyer, or Postlets, to reduce the chance of spoofing?
Thanks. I hadn't thought of it that way.
Hi Mike,
Yeah the CL folks say that there are a few ways you can protect yourself, and one of those is by using a Shows flyer, VFlyer, Postlets, or something else that generates a JPG or other image file. Their theory is that it is harder to spoof the image file because a person would have to take the time to save the file and edit it in a photo editing program. This isn't impossible, but it is harder than cut and pasting your ad copy and tweaking the contact info. I guess the JPG flyers make it just a little cumbersome enough that they will work with an easier ad than an image-only ad.
I went ahead and asked them if they would recommend "Craigslist Reader Pro" or crazedlist dot org to search for my own ad spoofed in another city/country and they said officially "No". But then the rep I spoke with said that if it were his ad, and he was serious about making sure it wasn't being copied elsewhere, he would use crazedlist in conjunction with Google reader (or similar) to scan for unique keywords in his ad... It is really tough to navigate, and EXTREMELY time-consuming, but this is how I do it now when I have something of high value to post...
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