From the design and logo of Craigslist.org to the people who are looking for a new home we can obviously see that their whole motto is keep it simple.

I recently put this motto to the test because if this is true then those who post within the real estate section might be scaring away potential new home buyers rather than pulling them in with their ads that clearly give the information from a brochure you get while looking at model homes.  Don’t get me wrong, I think it is very important for those who are browsing to get all the information possible about your new homes and community but maybe we should try going about it with a simplistic perspective.

I posted an ad on Craigslist.org with information that was upfront and very informative but still to the point.  Think of an ad that a home owner trying to sell their own home would put up just with a hint of professionalism.  Then I made an ad that looks typical of a real estate agent meaning lots of information about the home and community, and a catchy title.  As an end result both the test communities were very close in their numbers but I did notice a slight lead in the community who had the least amount of filler information versus the highly worded ad.

Based on my results your best bet is to make your ads have a nice medium between the real estate agents ad and the “for sale by owner” ad.  Here are a few tips and tricks to help you do just that:

• Bullet point the important information people are searching for such as bedroom count, bathroom count, square footage, HOA cost (if any), community amenities such as a pool, park(s), greenbelt(s) and so on.
• Try to avoid words such as amenities or using your community name too often as it might seem like a real estate agent is posting the ad and most people do not use the word amenities when speaking about their communities pool.
• Highlight the fact that you are selling a new home in your title but be sure to include something about your community in the title as well.  Example: New home with community pool for sale
• Don’t be afraid to post your price in the area where Craigslist asks for the home price.  Putting the price within the ad description is very hard to find especially if your ad has lots of content to it.
• Put as many quality pictures within the ad as possible.
• It’s perfectly fine to use some of your brochure information or phrases within the ad just made sure it isn’t an overwhelming amount of information.

Happy posting!