craigslist has enacted fines for overposting, misposting and abuse of the site:

b. If craigslist establishes limits on the frequency with which you may
access the Service, or terminates your access to or use of the Service, you
agree to pay craigslist one hundred dollars ($100) for each message posted
in excess of such limits or for each day on which you access craigslist in
excess of such limits, whichever is higher.

c. If you send unsolicited email advertisements to craigslist email
addresses or through craigslist computer systems, you agree to pay
craigslist twenty five dollars ($25) for each such email.

d. If you post Content in violation of the TOU, other than as described
above, you agree to pay craigslist one hundred dollars ($100) for each
Item of Content posted. In its sole discretion, craigslist may elect
to issue a warning before assessing damages.

e. If you are a Posting Agent that uses the Service in violation of the
TOU, in addition to any liquidated damages under clause (d), you agree to
pay craigslist one hundred dollars ($100) for each and every Item you post
in violation of the TOU. A Posting Agent will also be deemed an agent of
the party engaging the Posting Agent to access the Service (the
"Principal"), and the Principal (by engaging the Posting Agent in
violation of the TOU) agrees to pay craigslist an additional one hundred
dollars ($100) for each Item posted by the Posting Agent on behalf of
the Principal in violation of the TOU.

f. If you aggregate, display, copy, duplicate, reproduce, or otherwise
exploit for any purpose any Content (except for your own Content) in
violation of these Terms without craigslist's express written permission,
you agree to pay craigslist three thousand dollars ($3,000) for each day
on which you engage in such conduct.

How will it be enforced?

set up a dept. to go after violaters... would be a huge money maker for them.

I think that's a terrific idea. I hate the fact that many people exploit craigslist by overposting their listings.

IT IS NOT LIKE A SEARCH ENGINE. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE ON PAGE ONE TO GET NOTICED!

My craigslist ads that are over a week old still get hits. How do I know? Because I track visitors to my other sites and I see where they're coming from...they're coming from CraigsList ads.

So while I may not ever know if I got a sale as a direct result of an ad on CraigsList, I DO know that my websites get visitors from CraigsList. that's enough for me to be VERY careful not to abuse it in such a way as to get banned or to have them crack down and not allow agents to post their listings for free anymore.

There are a couple agents in my area that blow up craigslist regularly with their listings. What kills me is how many include the same typos posting after posting because they are copying and pasting their ads over and over.

The number of hits I get from CL drops the older the posting is. I try to post a different set of listings everyday, but it takes over a week to repost the same property by rotating them in the way I do. I try to remove the older post when I post the property again. I can tell a difference when I go a few days without posting.

I had a client tell me: "Post my property every *&^%() time you can. I do not care what some @$$&@0# thinks, I want it seen."

I prefer to obey the rules though - I'd hate to see Craigs List move to charging brokers for spamming the system...and that's what posting repeatedly will do.

Funny, my last Craigslist post only got two clicks (that I could track that is) on the first day, and then I had a bunch of them several days later.

I think that they've had that in their TOS for a long time, but enforcing it would be very hard to do. Also, it says IF craigslist establishes limits in at least one item in the TOS you posted.

Joe

I think am obeying the rules. I am not reposting the same properties everyday. Every day I am posting 7 different properties, takes over a week to get back to the first 7 I posted. I would hate to see CL change but do not consider what I a doing to be a violation of TOU or even spamming since it is something different everyday. You say tomato, I say say...

how many agents can contribute the selling of a home directly to craigslist?

1.....

if i post a 300k home and get a call and the buyer buys a 250k home that does not count.

i am wondering exactly how many solid purchases are contributed to a craigslist post



2....how many people can attribute any direct sale to any craigslist post?


for me, signcalls are the best leads that i get.

It's hard to track, estatereal, because it's very possible someone working with an agent already may see your ad on craigslist and forward it to their agent.

an calls I get for a particular ad that results in a sale COUNTS. For instance, I had people call me up last week on a property I had listed online - they found my website, somewhere - possibly on CraigsList. They could not trace their movements exactly; they said they found the house somewhere online and clicked through to my website - it could have been craigslist, trulia, zillow, or even my blog.

They looked at the house and decided it didn't suit their needs. I showed them two other houses and they have made an offer on one of those houses.

How can you say that 'doesn't count?'

It all works together - like a big web. I do know this - I'm ranked #4 in my office for sales out of nearly 30 agents, I'm one of only a handful that are doing much business at all - and I get a LOT of leads and it's because I am ALL OVER online - I am on Craigslist, I am on Trulia, I am on Zillow, I am on ActiveRain, and my own wordpress blog, I am also on YouTube. It all works together and it is WORKING. It is part of my routine and it WORKS. Everything I do online sends buyers to my website.

I get several hits on my website from my craigslist ads. I honestly have no pure scientific way of knowing which of the ones who call me from my website found me thru Craigslist - I just know that right now what I'm doing is helping me earn a living - and like it or not, that DOES count.

Right now for sales in my entire MLS I am one of the 25% that's actually doing something. While other offices are shutting down on weekends and agents are becoming waitresses to make ends meet, I'm still selling real estate and getting calls daily.

I tried not posting every day to see the difference and it took about 3 days but then the visits to my site from CL dropped by 75%.

estatereal--I have only seen a few capable and motivated buyers from CL. But I would not discount the source of the lead IF they did not buy the property they originally contacted you about. CL is free, the quality of leads is low, but it has worked for me. I suggest following what Perky just said and use CL as only a part of a web marketing strategy.

i might have been hazy on my post. my point is that putting a house on cl is sort of like having an open house. the chances of selling the house advertised are very low. it is more of a way for agents to get leads and there is nothing wrong with that.

We have a craigslist auto-posting system built into the SPS service - I have to tell you that I have had to be very careful about how we permitted our clients to use it so as to ensure we don't spam, or be seen to spam craigslist.

On the lead generation side of things - there seems to be a major consensus amongst my clients that craigslist is way to generate interest 'via' a listing to get traffic to the specific listing site, or to their main sites where they can perform lead capture. I'd agree that actual, specific inquiries about a certain listing don't necessarily occur.