Today I’m continuing my Craigslist 101 series to {hopefully} answer some of the many questions I get, asking how we sold our house on Craigslist.
Yup, that’s right — Dave and I sold our first house on Craigslist…
by owner…
and got THREE offers…
in only THREE days!
And no, we did NOT know what we were doing and had no experience selling a house!
Oh, and did I mention that Michigan has been in the middle of a HUGE buyer’s market for well over a year?
How We Sold Our House on Craigslist:
Even though we had fixed up our cute little starter home {which was in a great location} I’m convinced that one of the main reasons our house sold so quickly was because of the time and effort I put in to properly advertising it on Craigslist….
#1. Before I posted our ad, I create a free WordPress.com website for our house.
I posted tons of {nicely edited} pictures with descriptions.
I clearly listed all the updates we had done and when we did them.
I listed every single new appliance, new light fixture, and new anything.
I highlighted the benefits of living in that house with that yard and that location.
I listed several local amenities {shopping, parks, restaurants, highway access, etc.}
I clearly stated our price and our contact information.
You can view the website I created here. {I did delete some of our personal information}
The whole website only took me about an hour, so I would definitely say it was worth my time investment!
#2. Then I drafted a Craigslist ad and inserted the link to our new website.
I followed my rules for Selling Successfully on Craigslist, but also clearly stated that any interested parties should click on the website link for lots more pictures and information.
And this might be obvious, but when you create your Craigslist ad, just make sure you choose “housing offered” as the type of post, and “real estate – by owner” for the category {as long as you are actually selling it by owner!}
Another cool thing about having a WordPress blog for our sale was that I could easily check my stats to see how many people visited our site via the Craigslist ad — we had a pretty good response.
#3. Then we waited with our phone and email available at all times!
I posted our ad on Friday evening {weekends are usually the most active selling times} and we got our first two calls within the hour! One family came to walk through our house Saturday morning, one came Saturday afternoon, and the third came Sunday afternoon.
ALL of them said that they were very impressed with the website and had never seen such a professional looking “for sale by owner” ad. I actually received several emails from people who weren’t even interested in buying our house but thought the website was such a great idea 
By Sunday night we had 3 offers and by Monday we had our good-faith deposit.
I have since helped 2 friends create websites to sell their homes and I’ve created a couple of website for my parents to sell/rent some of their rental properties.
No, I’m not a fantastic website creator, I’m certainly not a great photographer, and I know NOTHING about real estate, but I did do a great job of providing as much information possible — and making it really easy for anyone to get that information.
Obviously creating a website is not the only way to sell a house on Craigslist, but worked for us, it worked for a few of my friends, and it worked for my parent’s rental properties… so it just might work for you too.
Plus, it’s free — so you really have nothing to lose {and we saved a bundle in Realtor fess!}
What is the biggest thing you ever sold on Craigslist?
Previous Posts in the Craigslist 101 Series: