First feedback from craigslist ads.

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

Thanks, you have some good ideas.

This, for me, is a fiddle-fart project, not a serious business or money making effort, more of a hobby at this point, sort of shaking the trees to see what falls off.

I'm going to go with the flow, but, if we see a trend or if something sparks an interest, maybe we'll pursue it with a more structured effort.

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for sharing this...

TESTing is very important, and can be very revealing...

Thanks for sharing your own tests, and what they are showing you...!

Around the middle of last year, I tested my own online (free) classified ad...

Here's what it said...

-----

We buy houses in [my state]. Save on agency fees and time.

If you need money fast, and don't want to pay agency fees, then call
or send a message now.

[X] years of experience in buying property.

Please send some details about the property for a quick response.

-----

I was testing to see what kind of response I got...

I did get people calling me who didn't want to sell through an agent. One was selling a house in the country (however, I was only interested in city properties). Another was selling a house in an area I didn't know very well (I wanted to stick with places I knew)...

Because I didn't know the areas that people who had properties were calling me from, I wasn't sure whether they were offering to sell to me at good values or not. However, I was surprised I got any calls at all...

Not every offer has to be a good deal. Even if just 1 in 20 calls were "good deals" you could make money doing this...

(Even if you didn't have the money to buy, you could still make money by using an option... Rules on real estate options vary from state to state, and country to country, so you gotta look that up yourself for your area...)

In the end, I pulled the ad (my focus went elsewhere)... But I would run it again in the future, in a heartbeat...

Best wishes,

Dien