Best way to attract sellers on Craigslist?

[Danny Benavides]

What would be the best way to attract sellers when placing a ad on craigslist?

[Dev Horn]

For Sale By Owners (FSBOs) are often offering the house themselves because they don't have enough equity in the house to pay RE commissions and still make a profit (or worse, they have 0 equity and would have to pay closing costs out of pocket).

In addition, they are usually idiots in regard to home values. Of course, they have not done a CMA, have no idea about recents sales and comp values, so they just grab a number out of thin air based upon some anecdotal info ("I heard another house 3 streets over sold for $200K, so...").

I REALLY appreciated your info @Terry Evans - I love that kind of testing and hearing the results of it.  Perhaps you could really dial in the message for "motivation" and get the few to call you who are in a hurry, need cash, & can't afford repairs to sell it retail.

If you find a FSBO where the property is truly distressed and won't sell via FHA or other financing without significant repair, you have an opportunity to deal with that person - if they have equity. Often we'll make an offer to those that is of course way below what they said they want, but later they will call us to ask if we're still interested. As with all marketing, a lot of your opportunity will come via follow-up over time.