Craigslist: Helping or Hurting REALTORS®?

By Rachel Shepherd

Technologies like PDAs, notebook computers and wireless Internet have helped the real estate industry advance business. But not all new offerings receive rave reviews.

Craigslist is one of them.

Craigslist is the world’s most used classified advertising service. The brainchild of Craig Newmark, Craigslist, with nine million classified ads per month, is a free one-stop shop for finding jobs, homes, goods, services and significant others. While some REALTORS® are discovering Craigslist to be a user-friendly site for listing properties, others find Craigslist a threat to the way the traditional real estate business is conducted.

Victoria Lowry of Triangle Realty in Pittsburgh says she uses Craigslist extensively. “The site is great,” she says. “Most respondents are familiar with it from word-of-mouth around college campuses and hospitals. Just recently it is bringing me traffic from the ‘normal’ public.” Lowry says she has pulled much of her regular advertising in exchange for using Craigslist exclusively for areas around campuses and university hospitals. “You just can’t beat the price or response,” she says.

Pat Long, associate broker for Kissinger, Bigatel & Brower in State College, says she had a negative experience with Craigslist and as a result, lost a referral. She said a client of hers whom she had referred to a REALTOR® in Columbus, Ohio used Craigslist to find a home and did not use the REALTOR® she had referred him to. “I don’t know how my client found the site,” she says, “but I was ticked off that he used it and I lost a referral.”

Long is not alone. The fear is quickly becoming, will Craigslist replace REALTORS®? Melanie McLane, licensed associate broker and residential appraiser for Pennsylvania, says, “I think this is the shape of the future and a definite threat to our traditional way of doing business.”

Kirby Kean, REALTOR® for Leroy Kean Real Estate in Philadelphia, explains Craigslist as a mixed bag. “Craigslist is only as good as its user,” he says. “Skills will vary across the population, especially with regards to the age of users.”

Shirley Boesenfleher, assistant in Kean’s office, reveals that her office receives 20-30 responses in a 24-hour period after listing a property on Craigslist.

Kean believes Craigslist can help or hurt a REALTOR® based on his ability to stay abreast of these technological changes. “If you can’t get your listing on the screen,” he says, “then it’s got a diminished capacity to help you.”