RealTown's RealTalk

Mark Jay wrote:

Craig’s list is just NOT an appropriate venue for Broker listed property or any other serious or professional marketer.  Any domain that carries images of genitalia—as Craigslist.com does-- is not a place YOU or your clients should be. 

For the most part Craig’s List is a freak show….

Fred Pickard comments in part:

I use Craig's List (I upload postlets) for almost every listing and just consider it another means to reach a potential buyer.

…

when I read Mr. Jay's comments …I have to ask ‘Have you EVER seen the type of images you reference under "Real Estate for Sale" on Craigs List?’ If so, have you reported them to the site owners, who will immediately remove them?

Your reaction and comment makes me think of the Puritan preachers of early America that looked for something bad in every aspect of daily life. You looked all over the site to find something objectionable so you could be a contrarian. You are probably of the mindset that the only people who use MySpace and Facebook are child predators.

Society is made up of all kinds of people with all kinds of lifestyles, beliefs and thought patterns. Just because a few of them use something like Craig's List, does that mean others should not?

Mark Jay responds:

Yes, society is made up of all kinds of people with all kinds of lifestyles, beliefs and thought patterns.  And if some of them—exhibitionists, prostitutes, scam artists, stolen goods fences and other crooks—use something like Craig’s list it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use Craig’s list—if you feel comfortable in that company.  But it does mean that you should be mindful of who you are associating your sellers with.  That’s my point.  As I wrote in my original post—Craig’s List is not an appropriate venue for the…professional marketer.  Craig’s list is a freak show.

Here’s the support for my position.

When you enter ‘Craigslist.com’ into your browser, you open the main page.  You pick a city.  Let’s pick Harrisburg as the city because that’s close to where Fred works.  On the Harrisburg page-- as with the pages of other cities-- there are just 9 categories.  Among those categories are ‘community’, ‘personals’, ‘discussion forms’, ‘personals’, ‘housing’, ‘for sale’, ‘services’ and a few others. 

Let’s look at the second category-- “personals”.  Under the category ‘men seeking woman’; in the first ad with an image, is an image of a naked man’s torso displaying this Craig’s List participant’s twig and berries in explicit detail.  Under the category ‘services’ right next to the line for ‘real estate’ is a link to ‘erotic’.  If you click on the ‘erotic’ link the first post that is displayed from February 24^th  under ‘women for men’ with an image-- is titled “young, dumb and full of …” inside of that post above a picture of a scantily dressed woman is the marketing message…. “If you want a hot time with a down to earth ebony beauty then give a call. Donations sessions beginning at 150 kisses….”   This “ebony beauty’ is marketing a “hot time” for $150—if  I’m correct in interpreting “kisses” as a code word for dollars.  In the second post with an image there is an image of a scantily clad woman below this marketing message “…full body massages for gentlemen. One hour topless session for one hundred; one hour nude session for one sixty; one hour nude mutual session for two hundred…”  A man naked paying $200 to receive a massage from a naked woman is quite likely to have a “happy ending”, don’t you think Fred?  And Fred’s ad is in the next column under real estate?  A happy ending for a naked customer paying $200 to a naked woman for a “massage” and a happy ending for an Exit Realty real estate licensee—Fred-- when he lands a buyer for his customer—his seller.  Happy endings all around for Craig’s List participants.  Is that the idea Fred?

A friend in my area needed to replace the tires on his ’06 BMW.  Original Equipment Tires cost about $325 a piece—that’s $1,300 for the set plus tax.   Someone named “the tire guy” was selling a set of these tires on Craig’s List.   My friend called and “the tire guy” said that the tires were “like new” and that he was selling the set for $600-- CASH.  Quite a bargain my friend thought.  Almost too good to be true.  My friend wanted to take a look at the tires and “the tire guy” said no problem he would be in my friends area—probably learned from the phone exchange displayed on “the tire guys” caller ID—later that afternoon.  My friend and “the tire guy” meet at a BP gas station and convenience store near my friends home.  “The tire guy”; a rough looking kid in his early 20’s shows up in an old dirty dented up mini-van and in the back were the BMW tires still mounted on 2007 BMW rims.  The kid said he’d throw the rims into the deal too for another $100 but he’d have to have CASH—no check, no credit card, CASH. The rims were worth at least another $1,000.  So here’s a scruffy looking kid selling $2,300 worth of tires and rims for $700.  My friend asked the kid why he was selling the tires—how did he come by these tires.  The kid replied that the tires and wheels were off is girl friends father’s car and he got them because his girl friend’s father wanted to “roll on some 20s”.  My friend didn’t like the looks of this deal and when he told the kid that he wasn’t interested the kid immediately dropped his price to $500 CASH for the works.  My friend still took a pass and wound up buying his tires at the Tire Rack.  Is it possible that “the tire guy” was a thief?

Yes, society is made up of all kinds of people with all kinds of lifestyles, beliefs and thought patterns—hot timers, hand jobbers and good old fashioned thieves—to name a few-- and a couple of Exit Realty sales associates like Fred who believe that Craig’s List is a good and proper venue for their product offerings.

lastly—I  hardly think of myself as being akin to a Puritan preacher from 17^th century America for not wanting to be associated with a brand—Craig’s List—that has too heavy a balance of defective people.  Craig’s List is largely a Freak Show but if you’re happy to join the parade then good luck and good selling!

…And… I wish you a “happy ending” in all your marketing activities….

Mark Jay, e-Pro

REALTOR and Mortgage Consultant

414-771-7713  Voice

262-853-6001 Voice

Southeast Wisconsin MLS Region

Mark@MarkJayRealty.com

Bart says:

The first time I seriously considered Craigslist was a Saturday morning early this January. I had a
commercial listing that was about 4 months old that was not getting much
response (just tire kickers) from the MLS.

Andi says:

The one and only time we put anything on Craigslist was also a commercial listing.  We had a response within a matter of hours – one of those Nigerian scam things where they would send us $1M for the property and we would send them back $995K……

We go no other responses on the listing and haven’t used it since…

Andi

Mack and Andi Durbin, Brokers
Rooftop Realty
Serving Metro Denver since 1976
303-881-8844
www.rooftoprealty.com
Visit our blog at www.rooftopviews.com
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