Competitors replying to my ads

[Stephen Nicholson]

I recently posted some ads online in the usual places (craigslist etc) to find any potential leads on homes to purchase. The Ad was geared towards finding homes to flip. I got one email today that just didnt seem to feel right. Some googling led me to finding that this was from another local flipper who I have never met.

My question would be....how do I respond to this email? Would I treat it as if it was a normal lead, giving a competitor a chance to see how I operate? Should I ignore it since the email sender was not open regarding being a competitor? Or should I send them an email back asking if they are who I know there are?

I dont want to burn any bridges with anyone local, you never know when you might need to do a deal with someone, but it annoyed me that they would reply to my ads posing as a potential seller.