I offer Craigslist posting in my Get More Leases services, but I'll be the first to admit it's not right for every property. A smaller or stabilized property may have plenty of time to post to Craigslist on their own while a high needs lease up may have other priorities and need a little help. There's no right or wrong way to do it, it's just trial and error for your property, which is why your advice for month to month agreements is a great one.

You've pointed out some great advice for evaluating the need for a posting agent. I just wanted to add that for properties looking into a posting service, look for one that specifically works with apartment communities. There are many posting agencies out there that post a variety of different ads, making them sound generic. A posting agent with multifamily experience is key to making your add look genuine while conveying the correct sales message.

Not that it's going to stop anyone from being or using a third party craigslist service since CL works so well, do be aware it does violate the Terms of Service, section 8 to use a posting service. "Posting Agents are not permitted to post Content on behalf of others."

Great point. This is exactly why many of the legit posting agents (myself included) will design and post the ad, but the actual link for publication will go to the leasing office's email address so that they are in fact the ones publishing the ads themselves.

You can use RentLinx to post to craigslist - for free - without violating any of the craigslist rules. Craigslist users are looking for fresh, up-to-date rent and availability. They may avoid the ads that look like a professional brochure. The RentLinx Craiglist Helper gives you a nice, clean formatted craigslist post with up to 8 photos via one copy and paste.

I hope I didn't come across as advertising, that certainly wasn't my intention. I just mentioned that we offer that to show the basis for my experience and comments. I'm happy to share all of my advice, strategies, etc. with all my fellow MFI anytime and expect nothing in return.

Charity, I think you hit the nail on the head with fewer posts. I posted to Craigslist for my locator business for about a year on my own, that's how I developed my strategies. It took a while to figure out what worked, but I did find that fewer ads was best, roughly 1 per 48 hours. I rarely have ads flagged and removed and I got good, consistent traffic from it. I actually did all of my locator business based on Craigslist alone for quite some time and it kept me quite busy. I know it all depends on markets as well, but in mine, Craigslist is pretty hot.

I also would hate to see Craigslist charge a fee. I believe there are some markets that do this already, no? Honestly though, I don't think the rental ads are the biggest problem spot on the site though in terms of spam, at least not in my experience. Home sales and car sales categories are completely littered with it.

@Charity Hi! RentLinx offers a free multi-list service (aka syndication), a pay-per-lead model, and a free Craiglist Helper. Our Craigslist Helper is similar to vFlyer: we provide the html. 3rd party posting is against craigslist rules so we don't do it. Over 40,000 properties use RentLinx. They tell us that many/most of the free craiglist leads are spam, but the leads from the other sites in The RentLinx Network are primarily good quality. With our pay-per-lead model, you don't pay for duplicates, leads from current renters, vendors or spam. You indicate which leads aren't valid with a quick one-click action. Results are guaranteed - if we don't produce real renter phone calls and emails, you don't pay.

Maybe it's because we are a small company, but I have found that posting Craigslist ads takes all of 20 minutes out of my day...
And Charity is correct, Texas craigslist is inundated with third party postings from locators and brokers...on many forums I have seen end-users frustrated with having to weed through the locator ads which do not give property locations and have mis-information, so I have found the best way to be noticed in a market filled with highly stylized (yet uninformative) ads, it to fall back on the basic Craigslist format....simple, informative copy with 4, well chosen interior shots and a link to my website for more photos and videos. I do use Postlets on occasion, but most of my responses come from my more simple ads.

I would love more ideas on how to cut through the Locator clutter...I don't guess I realized until the Brainstorming Conference that Locators are mainly a Texas phenomenon.