Finding a Home in Austin on Craigslist

Finding a Home in Austin on Craigslist

By Texas Home Appraiser

In the section for real estate, you will see that many people, including Realtors post their entire Austin sales and rental listings they have on Austin Craigslist. It's free and at times effective, so there is no cause not to post listings on Austin Craigslist, together with the pictures. In doing so, and in seeing how user-unfriendly the Craigslist interface is from a real estate listing browsing point of view, I've come to some realizations.

Looking for keywords is the single way that works when utilizing Craigslist to find Austin real estate Today, for example, there are nearly 300 real estate listings that are new on the "for sale" section of Austin Craigslist real estate. Scrolling down the page understanding the listing titles is time consuming and isn't very productive. Clicking the "Next 100 Postings" connection at the foot of each page, just gives more of the same. You'd have to scroll through 1,000-plus listings just to view the previous 4 days of new entries. As listings stay active on Craigslist for 45 days, it's improbable that anyone is going to scroll through all accessible listings. They are instead going to look for keywords.

When I want to find real estate in Shady Hollow, Western Oaks, Legends Oaks, or Circle C, then I would likely use those neighborhood names as search keywords. Or I'd be looking for some other attribute such as "South Austin," "Kiker" Elementary, or "Bowie" High School, for example. If a home close to Westlake High School is what I want, then I would likely use keywords such as "Westlake" and "Eanes."

Now that it is obvious my record in Austin Craigslist is more to be viewed as a outcome from a search engine, then it is best to write content with lots of keywords in them.

For example, let's say I have a listing in Travis Heights off South Congress (soco) in South Austin for trade. Can it be said that the following is a good ad copy?:

A near-to-everything older cottage, charming, and accessible within minutes from the downtown. Walking distance to neighborhood park and pool and local shops and restaurants.

Do you notice that the sample sentence lack important keywords? For example, a searcher wants to locate a Travis Heights home, how would he do so if the neighborhood itself is not revealed? The searcher wouldn't. On Craigslist I can assure you that there are a lot of poorly penned ads such as this.

A more improved copy would be:

An attraction of South Central Austin located in Travis Heights a few minutes to the Austin downtown. Stroll to Stacy Park and pool and to South Congress (soco) shops and restaurants.

See the dissimilarity? We've said importantly the same thing as the first example, but in a keyword-rich way that is more likely to effect in the posting being seen by someone looking for a home in Travis Heights or close to South Congress (soco).

This step can be improved some more through factoring in derivative keywords. For example, a rental listing I recently posted on Craigslist is located in Western Oaks. I lead off the ad with:

Superb home, nicely updated in a magnificent Western oaks location, particularly a South Austin location, Circle C and Legend Oaks are near by.

Why am I stating "near to Legend Oaks and Circle C"? For the reason that anyone browsing for a home for rent in Legend Oaks or Circle C may be interested in this home in Western Oaks also. The point here is to gather the interests of as many as possible. Another is that quality schools are good motivating factors for the South Austin area so it is best to state the full name of such schools in case there are some browsing for properties particularly attending such schools.

In short, a website copy and a Craigslist ad are not to be written differently. One has to inquire "what keywords and search phrases may be used by people whom I want to find this content?" Then take pains to incorporate those keywords in the ads you write.

This article was drafted by Chandler Smith, a savvy real estate professional in the Austin, TX area. He manages Austin Real Estate Appraisal Company as well as Austin Real Estate Appraisers

Article Source: Where to Find