All the cool kids in real estate investing are familiar with Craigslist. The Craigslist website has revolutionized how we invest in real estate. This one site can help us find:
-
Motivated sellers
-
Potential additions to our buyer’s list
-
Rental tenants
-
Handymen and contractors
-
Parts for our buildings (appliances, surplus construction material, etc.)
-
Buyers for items found in rehab projects
If you want to buy or sell something in your local area, Craigslist is the place for you. It is also the place for millions of other people. Including lots of other real estate investors…
There’s a lot of competition for hot deals on Craigslist.
You have to know about the deal right away when it pops up, so you can move on it quickly. It is difficult to steal in slow motion.
Craigslist has a way to alert you when a new listing pops up that matches your search criteria. You will receive an email when the new alert comes up. That way you can stay on top of new deals and be the first in line.
Unfortunately, many times you are away from your computer when a new deal comes up. You have to rely on your phone to see the deal and respond to it. And Craigslist is not the most mobile-friendly website in the world.
That’s where different apps can help out...
We found two apps that can make your mobile (tablet and phone) experience with Craigslist much simpler and more effective.
Craigslist for Android
There are actually a lot of apps for both iPhone and Android that are designed to enhance Craigslist, but we found one in particular that would make it easy for real estate investors to use Craigslist on the go.
It’s called Mokryia. The name comes from the company that made the app. They have also designed lots of other popular apps for other companies such as AT&T and Intel.
Mokryia’s Craigslist app is actually licensed with Craigslist. That means Craigslist won’t battle them to shut it down, like they do with other scraping software.
You can download the Mokryia app for free from Google Play. There is also a Premium version that costs $0.99 and well worth the money.
Once you download the app, it automatically determines your location and pulls up that location’s listings on Craigslist. Mokriya wanted to make everything on Craigslist accessible to you in two touches or less.
So on the first screen, all you have to do is pick your category and search.
Of course, you can change the location if you want as well. You can also specify a more specific area.
Next you need to specify a category, which you can do through a nice sliding interface. Here, investors can pick homes for sale, rentals, appliances for sale, etc.
As you scroll through the ads, Mokryia displays them in a grid system with pictures that is easy to scroll through. You can click on one you like and scroll left and right through the pictures (assuming there are some pictures).
If you like what you see on the ad, you can hit a button at the top of the ad description (bottom of the picture) and either call or email the seller.
The premium version of the ad lets you have 3 additional features that real estate investors could really use:
-
Post an ad to Craigslist can be very helpful on the go. Just write a description, take some pictures with your smartphone and hit post. This would be good for wholesalers in the field who want to move the property quickly.
-
Set up alerts for new ads that meet your criteria. The alerts will pop up on your phone so you can act right away when a deal appears.
-
'Favorite’ an ad. If you send an email or notify the seller you are interested, you can mark the ad for further follow-up later.
Mokryia has worked very hard to make their app elegant and easy to use. When you are on the go, as many real estate investors are, having this kind of convenience with Craigslist makes your business life much easier.
Craigslist for Apple
As of the writing of this lesson, we were unable to pull up the Mokryia app for iOS on the Apple App Store. So we looked for an alternative for iPhone users...
We found CPlus.
CPlus does not apparently have an Android version, but you can use it on a Windows phone. Just like Mokryia, CPlus is produced by a large app company (Yanflex) and is officially licensed with Craigslist, so it should be around for a while.
CPlus offers a lot of the same features as Mokryia, in a similar form. They do not have a premium upgrade - everything on the CPlus app is free.
Similar to Mokryia, CPlus offers:
-
A nice grid-system list of pictures for your search
-
Mobile-friendly formats for reviewing the ad you’re interested in
-
The ability to communicate with the seller (phone or email) directly from the app
-
Alerts to notify you when a new ad pops up meeting your criteria
-
Saved ads to follow up with later
Beyond Mokryia, though, CPlus can also show you a map of the ads that meet your search criteria. That way, you can quickly tell if a motivated seller’s home is in a good area or not. Or you can plan out your route to see several homes at once.
Whichever way you go, it is worth looking into an app to make your Craigslist experience that much easier. Many real estate investors are on Craigslist a lot. Making their time more efficient and productive is the path to higher profits and potentially more free time.
Comments, Questions
Leave questions or comments about this lesson below.
Keep Up with Craigslist – Craigslist is always changing and evolving. Some things you could do yesterday are no longer allowed today. Stay up to date with the changes if you use Craigslist in your real estate business.
Follow Up – Saving ads, phone numbers and emails is very important. The people who get the deals are the ones who are persistent and follow up.
Bring Deals to You – Use technology, bird dogs and other people to leverage your search for deals. Don’t try to find them all yourself.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.