Craigslist Posting Tool

What is the Craigslist Posting Tool?

The Craigslist Posting Tool helps you create and track Craigslist ads to showcase your listings.

Why Should I Use the Craigslist Posting Tool?

Craigslist is one of the most visited and popular websites in the world, and more and more buyers are including Craigslist in their search for a new home. If you’re not posting your listings to Craigslist on a regular basis, you’re missing out on free exposure for your listings and potential new leads. The Craigslist posting tool in your Market Leader system makes it extremely easy to post your listings to Craigslist, getting your listing more exposure and increasing the chance of being connected with new potential buyers.A Craigslist post helps you:

• Promote your listing.
• Sell your listing faster
• Encourage more consumers to visit your website.
• Generate more phone calls to you!

One caveat--as Craigslist is a 3^rd party company, they can change their rules at any time (and not tell us—shame on them!).  So always make sure you refer to Craigslist’s website www.craigslist.org to ensure your posts stay in compliance with their terms of use. 

Open Craigslist Posting Tool

1. Log into your Market Leader system.

2. In the navigation list, hover over Listings and select Market My Listings.

3. On the Post on Craigslist tab, for a given listing, click New Post.

a) Don’t see your listing? Make sure you connect your active listings from the MLS to your Market Leader account by adding your Agent MLS ID.

b) Next, click Open Craigslist to Post. The system opens a new window to Craigslist. Do not close the Market Leader system window. You must switch between windows as you post. Log into your Craigslist Account and enter your credentials. If you do not have an account, click Apply for Account.

4. Navigate on Craigslist to the appropriate location and section to post to classifieds.

a) Type: Housing offered

b) Category: real estate – by broker

c) Read through and agree to their guidelines

d) Choose the location that best fits the listing

Create a Posting on Craigslist

1. On the next Create a Post page on Craigslist, fill in all of the fields in your contact info section.  Include your preferred email (some prefer to use the hidden “CL mail relay” option as well as your preferred phone number.

2. Toggle between the Craigslist posting page and the Market Leader window to copy the values from your Market Leader screen and paste them into the corresponding fields in Craigslist.

3. For the Posting Title, you may want to rewrite it to ensure it will grab the attention of potential buyers.  (Example “Hot deal just 2 blocks from Green Lake!” )

4. For the Posting Body/Description, you can simply copy and paste all of the information in the Description section in Market Leader into the Craigslist Posting Body section. 

Enter in all of the remaining fields and click Continue.

Complete Craigslist Post

1. To select the location on the map either enter the address and select find address on map or  drag the pin to the correct location on the map. Click Continue.

2. Select Browse to add images to your Craigslist ad and click done with images.

a) Choose the best photo of the home to add first, as this will be the one that displays as the primary photo. You can add up to a total of 24 photos.

3. Preview the post and click Publish.

4. Craigslist will then email you a verification email to complete your post. Click on the link in the verification email, and Accept the terms of use, and click Publish.

5. Congratulations, now your post is live and can be generating inquiries for you! 

Mark Listing as Posted in Market Leader

In the Market Leader Post on Craigslist window, click Mark as Posted in List. This will set the system timer so you know when to post this listing again, as well as enable you to track visitors and leads you generate from this post. Leads you generate from this and other Craigslist ads you post using your Market Leader Craigslist Posting Tool, will be labeled with the source of Craigslist, as well as be tracked in Site Activity as being from Craigslist.

Suggestions

Cultivate the following habits:Keep an eye on your Craigslist account. When logged in to your Craigslist account, check your ads to see which have expired or been deleted so you can renew or repost them as appropriate.  Learn more about renewing and reposting on Craigslist: http://www.craigslist.org/about/help/repost