How NOT to write a Craigslist For Rent ad
by Sparkdog ~ October 14th, 2008. Filed under: How to articles.
It happens that I occasionally write “for rent” ads. Whenever I do, I see poorly written ads. How can homeowners and landlords with thousands of dollars in rent at stake afford to advertise so poorly? For the second article in our “how to” series, I’m going to explain how to write a better Craigslist for rent ad.
DISCLAIMER: Actual Asheville, NC Craigslist ads will be examined in this article. If you wrote those ads, I’m probably going to make fun of you. But that’s not nearly as bad as still having a vacancy, is it?
Let’s look at a few ads from this past weekend. By Saturday evening, 45 for rent ads had been posted. With that many rentals competing, you want to have a well written ad.
Craigslist Asheville ads from 10/11/08. My comments in red and green. Click the image for a bigger version in a new window.
In this list there are a lot of problems. It was hard to stop with the screen capture - there are that many problems. Each of these one line display ads have the same job: to get someone to click. Very few do that job well.
More evidence from the listings on Oct 10th and 11th:
- 11 uses of “nice”
- 3 of “charm”
- 15 listings that skipped a major field, like number of Br’s
- 6 “greats”
- 23 “!”
You can go look at the ads for yourself and see what I’m talking about firsthand - here’s the link to the Asheville Craigslist housing for rent section.
List of things NOT to do in a “For Rent” Ad:
- Use ALL CAPS. It’s hard to read and it’s considered the online equivalent of yelling. Ex: AVAILABLE FOR RENT IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!
- Use the words cute, awesome, great, perfect, nice, amazing, or any related “generalist” adjectives. These are meaningless to the reader. Also “unfurnished.” Just tell me if it’s furnished. Otherwise, I assume it’s empty.
- Leave fields blank. Fill out all the blanks, or fields, when you create your ad.
- Put your phone number in the title field. Presumably, if I want to learn more about your listing, I’ll click it, and then you can tell me your phone number. But before then? Bad idea. It wastes the title space and makes you seem a little desperate.
- Discriminate against a protected class. How about this line from Saturday Oct 11th: “lookin for quiet single or couple.” Hello? If you thought this was different than saying no kids, you’re wrong.
- Skimp on the body text. Once I click, it’s ok for you to tell me about your rental. Stick to the facts, but use as many words as you need. Describe the terms, the location, the benefits, the parking, and anything else that might sell me on your place.
This is the anatomy of the Craigslist display ad, with the field names you are shown during the ad’s creation tagged in red. You don’t need to list bedrooms in the Title, for example, as long as you fill in the #BR: field.
List of things TO do in a “for rent” ad:
- Make good use of the title field! The job of the title is to get someone to click. Without that click, you have nothing.
- Tenants look first for a rent amount and then for a location. Make sure both are clear in your visible short listing.
- Use specifics. “Granite countertops” = good. “Walk to Biltmore village” = good. “Lots of charm” = bad. Be honest about your rentals and remember that the more detail you give, the more likely you’ll find a tenant who appreciates that property.
- Have pictures. They are free and you can have four. Many (smart) people will filter their searches to only listings with pictures.
- Have a benefit for the tenant. Describe it with words. A dishwasher is a feature. Free time from not hand washing plastic cups, now that is a benefit. Close to downtown is a feature. But being happy by participating in downtown cultural life, that is a benefit. Your benefits will always be the things a tenant gets by living in an apartment, but not anything that you, if you’re the landlord, could claim for depreciation.
- Answer the phone. State how you want to be contacted and, if you’re busy, at what times.
- In the body text, list all the features and terms. BBQ grill? Deck? Pet deposit? Parking? Bus stop? Schools? Nearby trails? Application? Deposit? There is more to your rental than you might think at first blush. Also repeat price, bedrooms, and location. EDIT: Since you have room in the body text, use whole phrases instead of the traditional classified shorthand. BR = bedroom, DW= dishwasher, etc.
If you have a particularly egregious example from Craigslist, an ad writing tip of your own, or a good rental house hunting story, please leave it in a comment.
– Clark Mackey, Sparkdog
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October 15th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Sorry, but this was a lame post.
For example people put “lots of charm” in ads for a reason. I suppose you have cookie-cutter plain apartments, so in that case charm is frivolous. My ads often contain the word “Charm” because it simply is a huge factor to tenants that take the apartment. Charm is useful as it can refer to something intangible that most units just don’t have. It also fits when you have things like a victorian or historic building, high ceilings or crown molding, fireplaces etc.
October 15th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Thanks for the feedback. I think the problem with a word like charm is its vagueness, and so it gets abused. I’m actually arguing for more detail in an ad, not less. So instead of charming, you might say, “Backyard overlooks year-round stream. Mature trees with rope swing.” Now that’s charming.
There is a fascinating section in Levitt’s book, Freakonomics, that explores the use of adjectives like “charming” in real estate for sale listings. His statistical conclusion is the same as my gut reaction: it’s better to use specifics.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
[...] with the Bourke Group (Keller Williams) in Asheville, NC wrote a fantastic post on How NOT to write a Craigslist For Rent Ad. It is insightful and very well thought through. Every landlord needs to read this! Categories : [...]
October 15th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
great article sparkdog. i’ll have to completely agree with you as far as the use of vague adjectives- less fluff and more specifics and details that give the facts. you can leave it up to me whether or not i think something is cute or not. chances are, your ‘cute’ might just be ‘cramped’ to me… well said.
October 17th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
This post created an interesting discussion on the Craigslist forums. The upshot of those posts is a new question: in the body text of a Craigslist ad, how much is too much?
One Craigslist post proposed that small landlords should use longer body text, and thus get fewer phone calls, while larger property managers should use shorter body text, thus encouraging phone calls. This is because the manager with many properties has multiple vacanices, and encouraging the phone traffic allows them to sell callers on other properties. Interesting thought.
Anyone care to weigh in on this?
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:25 am
The post was general, mostly obvious and not that useful…much like some of the vague criagslist ads. As far as some of the specific comments - when trying to appeal to a variety of people (though with a target income/demographic grouping in mind) it is important to not eliminate potential customers with the use of too specific of language; it’s a fundamental principle of advertising. Also, not everyone considers all-caps to be yelling or desperate. Not everyone applies negative connotations to country-living and many despise overly populated areas. Putting finance or lease terms in the titles of an internet ad can make the difference between a ‘click’ and just a scanning of the title before moving on. No matter how you slice it, your aim is to draw someone into your body text with just enough, but not too much, information in the title. You are dealing with and trying to entice individual perspective customers not generalizations across the entire target demographic.
November 2nd, 2008 at 12:19 am
These are some great tips on how to write an ad and what to include in your ad on Craigslist. It’s really important for your ad to stand out as there are so many ads on Craigslist, so these tips are a big help for many!
December 15th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I agree with the use of the word “charming” and similar; “charming” is sometimes a euphuism for “run-down” or “old but not that well maintained”. It’s much better to be specific
January 24th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
IF you know that someone is selling a lot, that can’t be built upon (current steep slope rules), and that if someone buys it thinking they can put a house there will be compeltely ripped off, who do you tell? What can you do? Anything? Nothing? The sellers are known to be threatening and hostile, small community, lots of old people who don’t want trouble.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
I like this article, it actually gives me more information and a quick list of things to think about before posting any kind of Craigslist ad, from real estate to an old tv I am trying to sell. This is basic fundamental marketing and advertising stuff, but CL is a newer tool for many people and it’s a good idea to get a refresher on “how-to” post good ads. And, to the poster who loves the word charming, I agree, Charming is a nice word, I often use it to describe my personality, and people tend to translate it (sneaky, deceiving, overbearing, and narcissistic) So I purchased a thesaurus.
Don’t be afraid to use words that you don’t hear every day…you might be surprised how savvy your shoppers are, they might actually have a vocabulary to work with. If someone is looking for charm, you can be sure they will benefit from even more description, and your ad will jump off the screen ahead of your less descriptive, boring posters who use conservative and less unique marketing techniques.
When I rent or buy from CL, I look for something that catches my eye, and the price. 2 Br, 1Ba Charming house $1100.00 may get a click, but 2/1 home with large fenced yard and fruit trees, with gorgeous rock fireplace $1100.00/mo. now you’re talking!!!
January 29th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Hi George,
You bring up an excellent point regarding purchasing property and how properties are advertised. Since Craigslist is available for the general public to advertise their property for sale, there is not much that my team can do. If there is a listing agent representing this seller, then it may be possible to review this with the listing agent regarding marketing the lot as buildable if in fact it is not. For anyone looking to purchase property, I would strongly advise them to select a knowledgeable agent to represent them and to guide them with the details involved in purchasing property especially what is possible for a particle lot. As a concerned member of the community who has discovered this possible misleading advertisement, I believe you have the option of flagging this posting in Craigslist or sending a note to Craigslist with your feedback and concern. I hope this helps.
Steve
January 30th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Very interesting post you wrote. Glad I have stumbled upon it. Cheers!
February 15th, 2009 at 12:35 am
In the CL ad you said was good, isn’t the title redundant? It states ‘live in Montford” even though in the same title, it tells you the place is located in Montford. You might as well get rid of that part since it doesn’t really add anything. Also, in the list of things not to do, you state not to discriminate against a protected class. But, isn’t advertising ’short walk to downtown’ considered to be discrimination against those who cannot walk?
I’m still kind of confused about benefits/features. Do you actually write out the benefit? So, you’d say includes 1 dishwasher which frees up time to enjoy with family? That doesn’t sound right.
February 15th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
@ Dana: 1) I think you are right, that ‘Live in Montford’ line is redundant since the location is also given at the end of the title line. Still, relative, to some of the others in that list, that post is providing useful information in the title line. 2) The short walk phrase is fine here, though there are lots of games we can play about what words might be discriminating against a protected class. The main thing to remember is that discrimination against protected groups is illegal, it does cause harm, in many areas of the country it is actively policed, and it does put landlords in court. The “lookin for quiet single or couple” is a pretty classic example of trying to say “no kids” without saying it directly. And that’s clearly across the line in my book. 3) When I have a clear benefit, I find a way to say it in the copy. If you Google features vs benefits you’ll get an eyeful of marketing information, as it’s a very common mistake to market a product feature when what really sells is the ultimate benefit. Thanks for your comments!