Craigslist is extremely popular with real estate agencies and home sellers. When you see an ad with a lot of html, it's wise to avoid that seller unless you really, truly are desperate for that house. The site says limited html, and the "fancy" ads are usually spammers and often try to harvest your contact information for spam. Stick to the plain-text ads with uploaded images. If you find a nice plain-text ad for a great house, always, always, always take a minute and search craigslist for that phone number or the name of the seller. Dishonest agents will try and spam the heck out of the site. A dozen ads or fewer isn't a bad sign. If they show a few hundred ads, avoid them. You already know they are greedy and dishonest, and would be a poor choice to buy from.
For everyone else, that isn't trying to use a slick fancy ad to spam, and that isn't abusing the free site with a hundred ads? Craigslist is a great, free way to show your home to prospective buyers. The only "payment" expected by buyer and seller is that they take a few moments to flag bad/spam/html/scam ads.
It's VERY popular, and that means it is targeted by scammers. Use some basic common sense, and you'll be fine. If the seller doesn't have a key and can't show you around the house, it's not their house. If the price and/or rent seems much too low, it's not real. If they want you to give them cash for a background check to buy a house, or to mail you the key, or any other stupid crap, it's not real. Flag those ads. There are LOTS of real people that are REALLY selling property. Take your time to find the right house :) Good luck!
If it's a legit realtor, then you're ok. I have a friend who is a real estate agent and she posts listings all the time on craigslist.
Look for an address, phone number, name, google them, see if you can find them locally. They should also have some kind of licensing number as well. A legit person will include this.
Its really suspicious for someone to be selling a house on Craigslist.. I mean its a major investment
Tell your mom to go on a lagitamit real-estate site
Don't trust craidlist unless your just buying something minor.... and never, pay online. Meet in person and examine what your buying before paying.
Good luck
It's always safer to buy houses from a Realtor because you can't always trust online adds. On the other hand, you could get a heck of a steal on a house. Just go look at the house yourself before buying. And you could always ask a Realtor to come look at it with you. Hope I helped :)
No, you'll die.
my mom keeps on looking at houses on craigslist but i keep on telling her bout all the stories that i heard about it on the news. how can she look on their and actually know if those are real houses for sale. she has never payed anything online and she hates paying stuff online. im 15 and she keeps making me look for houses online and i obviously know nothing bout houses so please help
