Wednesday, June 27, 2012

CraigsList Cold War via Multifamily Insight Blog

I had a conversation the other day (at times a thinly-veiled argument) with a representative from an apartment listing publication which shall remain nameless, over the impact of Craigslist on the apartment publication industry. She refused to acknowledge the quality and volume of renter prospect traffic that can be generated by a Craigslist ad and couldn’t even own her patently obvious disadvantage that the lease acquisition cost of Craigslist is zero and all other serious print/online pubs are, well, much more than that. I know she has to tow the party-line but at this point, if you’re an apartment print magazine claiming you’re as effective at driving traffic as Craigslist, especially when advertising costs are computed, then you’re losing serious credibility.

For many property owners/managers, Craigslist is the alpha and omega of critical marketing activities. Personally, I don’t have one community under Leonardo Management which couldn’t thrive strictly off leads generated by Craigslist ads. I understand that during a lease-up or asset repositioning, a wider shotgun approach is necessary to try to reign in as many leads as possible in the shortest amount of time, even if the lease acquisition cost is high. For a stabilized community in a primary or secondary market, however, Craigslist is, without question, the “go-to”.

Read more...CraigsList Cold War | Multifamily Insight Blog

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