“If they simply turned on the pay-per-post model today, most people would pay it because Craigslist has generally established itself as a good source for leads,” Pollock says. I think you’ll see them add the entire top 25 MSAs within the next 18 months.”ĭespite any move Craigslist might make to a pay model, multifamily marketing mavens expect the firms’ classified listings to continue to offer comparatively low costs in terms of lead generation and consequently an immensely popular advertising arena for apartments. “But ultimately, I don’t think it will take more than three years to have nationwide pay-for-listing status for apartments. “That helps them from a cultural standpoint to say, ‘We don’t want to do this at all we are only doing it where we have to,’" says Simoncini. Secaucus, N.J.-based Axiom Marketing president Ron Simoncini expects Craigslist to begin charging on a market-to-market basis, with metros that have a larger volume of apartment listings (or those beset with spamming issues) falling first. According to its website, Craigslist generates the entirety of its revenue from charges for job listings in 19 major metro markets, from brokered apartment listing fees in New York City, and from ads in the therapeutic services category, regardless of market. "From a consumer standpoint, to try and browse that and make it work per the Craigslist model becomes challenging.”Ĭraigslist did not respond to a request for comment on whether the company plans to roll out a pay-per-post model for apartments. “You're talking 30,000-plus listings coming up per month," Pollock says. What does it take in terms of volume to make a category so crowded with posts that it becomes ineffective from a consumer standpoint? It’s difficult to say, but look at Los Angeles, where there are 1,000 to 1,200 postings a day. “One of the reasons they do that is because the category becomes extremely overcrowded with postings." “In general, it seems to be when the volume hits a certain number, Craigslist will move to a pay model,” says Steven Pollock, vice president of product management for San Francisco-based apartment ILS, which offers Craigslist posting and reporting tools via its RentEngine integration service.
While apartment marketers have speculated a broad move to a pay-per-post model since Craigslist’s 2006 decision to begin charging $10 for brokered New York City listings, the move is more likely now, as the company has seen the pay model help significantly reduce illegitimate listings in high-volume, growth categories such as apartment and housing listings in large urban markets. Multifamily advertising experts say San Francisco-based Craigslist will likely move to a pay-per-post model for apartment listings in major U.S.