As a real estate agent here in my relatively obscure home of historic Weeki Wachee Florida, I’m never home alone without the latest advertising tools. With a couple of laptops, high speed internet, cell phone and a Magic Jack there really isn't any need to go to my office unless I want to say hello to my real estate friends at Tropic Shores Realty or to meet a customer to show property in real life they've already seen on the Internet hopefully consummating in a contract.
It has been said the best things in life are free and so it is with Internet real estate advertising these days. It's a great time to be in the real estate business because advertising is so easy. The best free and very effective advertising goes by the name of Craig’s List, the big daddy of all freebee Internet ad spaces. Tie this baby up with Postlet or VFlyer and a real estate agent has an advertising dream come true.
If you can name a service or product, you can probably buy it or sell it on Craig’s List. I’ve used the service effectively for several years to buy and sell guitars, electronic wares, and computers, even cars. Due to a very heated real estate buyer’s market caused by massive available bank owned foreclosures, Craig’s List has become one of the most effective means for buyers and sellers of real estate to communicate simply, quickly and effectively.
Craig’s List helps to develop buyer interest and demand in a simple to use search of bank owned foreclosed properties without all of the rigor and formality of the Multiple Listing Service or Realtor.com.
These traditional Internet real estate services count for a lot because of the specific criteria they can stack in search for a home. But chances are that the same buyer who uses MLS or Realtor.com is going to be using Craig’s List as well.
So Craig's List is a great marketing tool to use when buying or selling real estate. Sharp real estate agents can no longer overlook the marketing impact of Craig’s List on generating additional foreclosure sales and practice building.
I’ve found Craig’s List to be a rather instant way of creating direct attention to my listings whether it be lease, rent or for sale. The problem I am beginning to see is abuse with this advertising medium by just a few unethical real estate agents, who cause a major public relations problem for our industry.
There isn't any kind way to say what I must say here. Some of the most egregious examples of Craig’s List abuse are disreputable real estate agents actually stealing other competing real estate agents listings from the MLS, then posting those properties on Craig’s List and making it appear that the properties are actually those of the thief!
I found this out as I kept hearing the name of an agent come up from phone customers as being the foreclosure source for the Hernando County area. When I checked the agent’s actual MLS listing, the agent actually had only three listings, and NONE WERE FORECLOSURES! After some quick checking I learned this dishonest agent had posted on Craig’s List over 25 foreclosure listings of other agents without their knowledge or permission. Naturally this was costing me time and money and so of those unsuspecting agents.
But what about you? How can you tell if the listing you see on Craig’s List is authentically offered by the posting agent as truly theirs or is the advertiser a listing bandit? Here are a couple of quick tests:
First, see if the address of the property shows in the Craig’s List posting. If the address is not readily apparent, chances are you are dealing with a listing bandit.
I’ve recently seen the unscrupulous practice of a list thief intentionally posting a pending sale knowing full well the property is unavailable. Illegal, maybe… but it is unethical, without a doubt. The thief’s goal is to get an unaware buyer calling and to get the list thief’s phone ringing.
And if when the thief is being discovered by a fellow agent the Craig’s List scoundrel will usually sink even lower by faking or forging bogus listings, again without any MLS information or street address, because there isn’t any information! They think other agents or customers will not notice or take the time to notice. But again, this low life practice of forging a post on Craig’s List does get buyers to make the thief’s phone to ring and the thief will attempt to sell the buyer a “similar” type of property.
You are probably asking what does this have to do with the consumer or honest and hard working agents? Well, such untamed chicanery costs time and money for those who deal honorably and honestly. That goes for customer and agents alike.
But the highest cost is to the true listing agent who is being robbed from earning the consumer’s business directly. Then other competing agents who use Craig’s List legitimately simply cannot compete effectively with a list thief who shows 20-30 foreclosure listings on Craig’s List, when in reality, the thief has perhaps three listings at best on the MLS!
One other method of spotting list bandits is notice in their ads on Craig’s List as being very cryptic, vague and while they heap lofty slogans upon themselves such as “working in the buyers best interest, not the banks!” “looking out for you the buyer!” This brand of self-indulgence is rank amateur and buyers who are attracted by this brand of hype are just plain foolish.
So, what can you as a consumer or as reputable real estate agent do when you suspect list thievery? You should contact the suspect and ask them for the MLS number, the street address and availability of the property. Unless it is a builder’s new home, if the suspect can’t provide all three items, report them to their broker. If they do not have a broker, contact the State Attorney General office for consumer affairs in Tallahassee.
As for legitimate real estate broker owners and operators, the boss does not want unethical people stealing from other agents and misleading the public regardless of how big a producer is the list thief. There are hefty fines and the threat of loss of broker’s license when such a practice as list theft is left unabated.
In summary, when anything is free, left to trust and is not being watched or closely regulated someone is going to steal. So please be watchful and help keep our profession and business clean of list thieves.
