Internet Classifieds, craigslist

     Sometimes I put this photograph in my advertising for my apartment for rent on craigslist. Sometimes I didn't.  It shows my previous tenant's possessions.

     Nine years ago I rented out the apartment upstairs. I called in a carpenter who constructed a new wall which created an entrance hallway and separated a large bedroom from the three rooms of the apartment.   He put in two doors. I installed new kitchen countertops, painted, refinished floors, bought a refrigerator and a new electric range.    I put in some new carpeting, valence curtains and supplied basic kitchen utensils.  I discovered how to attach the window weights in the kitchen windows so they would stay up when raised.  I hired an electrician with a toolbelt to install a 220 line for the new electric range.  I provided basic furniture: a bed and chest of drawers, a couch, rocking chair, kitchen dining table and chairs.  Only the kitchen had heat in the baseboards.  As soon as I rented the apartment I would extend the heat into all the other rooms on the second floor.  I lined up a plumber who could do the work for me quickly.

      To advertise my apartment I inserted a three line ad into the classified section of a local weekly newspaper that was widely read in those days.  It cost me about twelve bucks for three weeks, maybe less. I listed it under the furnished apartment category and included my phone number.  Within a week I had a dozen phone call inquiries and within two weeks several different people came to look.  By the third week I didn't need the advertisement.  I rented the apartment.

     It was very simple.  A bachelor fellow showed up and wanted the place.  He had a good job and had transferred to be in the area and worked steadily. My dog lay down at his feet and my cat rubbed up against his legs.  He didn't have a reference other than his aunt because he had had just moved to Maine from Connecticut.  I called her, she said he didn't drink much, was quiet and worked hard. There wasn't any stress involved at all with finding this tenant.  I called in the plumbing and heating specialist right after he moved in and all the heating system was extended into all the rooms on the second floor.  My tenant stayed here for nine years.  No stress involved at all.

     This time I didn't get very many responses to classifeds in the newspapers.  I put one into a local paper to run for about a week every day.  It cost $35.  I got two responses.  Both were from people with large families that would not fit into the apartment. The two responses cost me $17.50 each.  Another ad cost about the same and I got no responses.

I also spent twenty dollars on an ad which was to appear for one year in the local university listings for off campus housing.  I never received a receipt for it and will never know if the ad was published somewhere. No one responded to that advertising so I ran an advertisement in a free weekly newspaper for four weeks.  It wasn't too expensive but brought in only one response. 

     Nowadays people look on-line to find rentals.  This is the age of the internet, computers, Blackberries and other hand-held computer telephone devices.  This is how people advertise and find things. So I advertised on various apartment for rent websites.  The one with the most responses was craigslist. 

     Every day I had responses and communication going on with people who rely on craigslist.  You can look for apartments to rent, you can post a rent wanted, you can find roommates, houses, offices, rooms to rent.  There are tricks with craigslist.  You have to pay attention to it, watch it all the time and if you are posting you have to keep posting your ad.

     You have to do this because if you do not keep your ad "fresh" it becomes buried down on the lists and no no one sees your ad unless they are really hunting.  If you post early in the day, like at 6 a.m. you ad will be buried within hours.  If you wait until later in the day your ad is not as likely to get buried.  You have to keep up with your email because this is how people respond to your ad and it isn't unusual to get ten responses within a few hours.  Then you have to figure out how to respond to all of them, what questions you need to ask without getting too "discriminatory". 

     You can post your ad every forty eight hours and if you violate this, they punish you

by deleting your ad.  You have to be very careful about this.  You also have to pay attention how you word your ad because you cannot discriminate.  It is a good idea to look at other ads in your category.   Then you can figure out what to say or show that will make your ad stand out from others.  By spending time on how you write your it can then help to attract the tenant that will be most suitable for your situation.  Words like large can work against you if you don't want a large family.  Cozy might be better.

     One good thing I had going was limited parking which worked with people who responded from large families and owned more than three vehicles.  I can park three vehicles here but one has to be for my vehicle. Another detail was that I did not have a fenced in yard.  This helped a lot with the dog issues.

     I am amazed at the number of people who are in need of rental housing who own dogs and cats.  Not just one dog or one cat but often two dogs and two cats. Some people  have rabbits and birds.  One fellow was looking for a place to rent for himself and his small mule.

     Actually he didn't respond to my ad but was in the rent wanted category.  Every now and then I would look into that section because you never know when there might be a suitable tenant advertising themselves. Most of them are extremely fussy and particular. They have specific needs and situations that are dramatic or pressing.  I have heard that a good rule of thumb is to post your ad and then let people find you.  The idea is to answer responses and not bother going to the rent wanted posts.  I had plenty of reponses to weed through.  I had to follow an elimination process.  The first one usually involved large families that wouldn't fit and then the people with lots of dogs and cats.

     There aren't many single people looking for rents.  Most of the people who are looking seem to be girlfriends and boyfriends, unmarried couples.  There are large families, people on Section 8 housing and people with challenges and in need special features to make their homes more accessible.  I am sure this might include lever operated doors rather than knobs in addition to entrances with ramps.

     I used words like cheerful, convenient, walking distance to town, near the interstate, sunny, quiet, private.  I made very sure if and when people responded to my ad by email that they understood it was an older home, that the apartment was occupied for nine years and can become a home within a home.  With many responses, I began to talk on the phone with possible tenants.

     "It's NOT NEW," I would say into the phone rather loudly.  "It is NOT an APARTMENT COMPLEX.  There's NO WASHER/DRYER HOOKUP and NO DISHWASHER.   Do you have PETS?  I have NO FENCED IN yard for a dog and there is a leash law in town.  I don't remove snow, you would HAVE TO SHOVEL yourself out..."  I wanted to make very sure that whoever was calling had a good idea of what the ad did NOT say because things like snow shoveling are real.  It isn't always July in Maine.

     The initial email responses were almost identical. The first thing almost everyone who responded wanted to know: "Do you accept dogs?"  Almost everyone had a large dog or small dog, often two dogs.  The dogs were described as "well behaved". A few asked about cats but not nearly as many as the people with dog(s).

     The second email response I received repeatedly was "Where is the apartment located because I want to do a driveby."  I found this abrupt and upsetting. I had described my location in my ad as "walking distance to downtown".  Why did people want to drive past the house instead of ask questions and set up a time to stop in and actually look at the rental? I did not tell people my actual address and explained why.  I told them that I live alone and did not have a sign in front of the house advertising the apartment. I would tell them the street and slowly, as I began to correspond with interested parties by email made actual appointments.  Then the address would be given to them so that they could stop in and see the apartment.

     One lady who has lived and worked in this town for umpteen years wanted to rent the entire house.  I  told her my exact location and she did a driveby with the understanding that my idea was to rent the apartment, not the entire house.  She just wanted to look anyway.  She had a scheme about helping me put all my stuff into storage somewhere that I put on a back burner in my mind.  Anything is possible.

     I have limited parking here, really can't accommodate more than three vehicles and one parking spot has to be for mine.  I wanted to rent to a single person, not a family or a couple.  A single puts less strain on my utility bills and is easier all the way around.  Stating that I wanted a single person in my ad would have been discriminatory.  I noticed that some people when advertising for a single person occupancy had some way around it by saying something about "legal occupancy of one person".  I don't know if that is a genunine law or something that a creative landlord manufactured.

     I think I had about sixty or more responses to my ads.  Most everyone was a couple.  Most everyone had dogs and cats.  Most everyone was looking for a washer/dryer hookup or wanted a dishwasher. Some people who came to look had things like a huge leather couch that would not fit through doorways or needed three prong plug outlets so that guarantees would be honored for computer equipment they owned.  One experience I had was a bit frightening.  A very shifty man tried to convince me to rent the apartment to him and his family.  I was pleasant with him during the entire time he was in my home with his wife but he frightened me.  His answers to direct questions weren't direct.  He had no physical address to give to me of where he was currently living.  He had no landlord reference.  He came with his wife when he had told me that he was looking for a place for himself and his teenaged son.  He told me to not bother painting the apartment.  He thought he had the rent all taken care of when he left that Sunday afternoon.  On Monday I requested a deposit from him, a very small amount and he never came through with it.  I was relieved but began to wonder if I would ever find my single person tenant.

     Finally, one day a single person, a woman contacted me through my craigslist advertisement.  She and her girlfriend came to look.  She told me she was a house cleaner and a student.  Self-employed.  Single.  She liked  the apartment immediately. She had three cats, one outdoor and two indoor.  I had to show the apartment again that day to a couple who had arranged to see it several days before.  They cancelled, found another apartment  that day.   I emailed the single woman and told her about this.  She emailed me and said she had been looking at other apartments but that they were cold and like institutions.  I called her up and asked her if she wanted my apartment.  She said yes.  She came over the next day with a deposit.