{"id":1365,"date":"2019-11-04T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T09:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.realty.com\/?p=1365"},"modified":"2022-05-25T21:35:20","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T21:35:20","slug":"why-shopping-for-homes-on-craigslist-is-a-bad-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/home-buying\/why-shopping-for-homes-on-craigslist-is-a-bad-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Shopping for Homes on Craigslist Is a Bad Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Craigslist is good for a lot of things: buying a secondhand couch, looking for part-time work, and scoping out free goodies. What is Craigslist not good for? Home buyers. Here are a few things to consider before you look for homes on that Godforsaken website.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mispriced Homes<\/b><\/h4>\n

You\u2019re looking for a home within your price range, so naturally, you sort through homes from lowest to highest. Unfortunately for you, you need to wade through six pages of homes listed for a dollar before you can get to anything relevant to your search. Because Craigslist doesn\u2019t have specific formatting or strict rules, anyone can list homes for any price (even if it\u2019s grossly inaccurate) just to be placed as a top result.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Poor Search<\/b><\/h4>\n

The filters in the Craigslist search are bare bones. You can search by number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the type of house, zip code, and only a few other scant options. Don\u2019t limit yourself to filters that don\u2019t immediately direct you to properties you\u2019re interested in. With <\/span>Realty.com<\/span><\/a>\u2019s advanced search, you have the power to search for homes by all of Craigslist\u2019s search terms plus: lot size, year built, HOA fees, days on the market, price changes, new listings, and so much more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sketchy Sellers<\/b><\/h4>\n

With Craigslist, you never really know who you\u2019re talking to. Because the emails listed are anonymized, it\u2019s increasingly difficult to verify the legitimacy of a seller and their listing. That means you\u2019re more likely to deal with unprofessional sales tactics. It also means you\u2019re more likely to fall for a scam. With <\/span>Realty.com<\/span><\/a>\u2019s trusted agents, you can rest assured that your dream home is handled by a real estate professional.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lacking Context<\/b><\/h4>\n

You find a home that piques your interest, but where is the information? With Craigslist ads, sellers can post no details and be as vague as they want. That means posts with bad or blurry pictures, no address listed, no information about the school system, or even basic infrastructure details such as the type of heating and cooling systems. A lack of information could mean more time wasted visiting properties that don\u2019t fit your needs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Annoying to Read<\/b><\/h4>\n

Let\u2019s face it, reading titles \u201c*****LiKe ThIs******\u201d or \u201cLIKE THIS!!!!!!!\u201d gets old pretty quickly. Avoid the headaches of the Craigslist dumpster fire and visit <\/span>Realty.com<\/span><\/a> for a sane home search experience that\u2019s easy, intuitive, and enjoyable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Need more tips for buying a home? Click\u00a0<\/span><\/i>here<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Craigslist is good for a lot of things: buying a secondhand couch, looking for part-time work, and scoping out free goodies. What is Craigslist not good for? Home buyers. Here are a few things to consider before you look for homes on that Godforsaken website. Mispriced Homes You\u2019re looking for a home within your price …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[79,53,119,82,191,56,62,87,90,76,65],"class_list":["post-1365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-buying","tag-avoiding-scams","tag-buying-a-home","tag-buying-your-first-home","tag-consumer-protection","tag-craigslist","tag-home-buying","tag-home-buying-tips","tag-homeownership","tag-real-estate","tag-scam","tag-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1365"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2290,"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions\/2290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}