Replying to and tracking tenant leads from Craigslist

Craigslist is the only large rental listing website that refuses to work with property management software companies. For this reason, owners and managers list rentals through The Zillow Group, Apartments.com, ApartmentList, etc.

Many industry leaders avoid Craigslist due to the lack of integration with their software systems and scams (where others on Craigslist will copy the listing and advertise it for a lower rent amount). Craigslist is losing market share for this reason.

At Hemlane, we understand many of our users still want to advertise through Craigslist. We cannot automatically track or manage leads from Craigslist, but we make it easier for you to create an advertisement by providing HTML code for the advertisement.

Step 1: Create your listing within Hemlane

It makes your Craigslist ad look much more professional. You can find the code for posting to Craigslist at the bottom of your Marketing tab's "Advertising" section:

Step 2: Create an email autoresponder to your Craigslist ad

After you have posted your rental on Craigslist, we recommend setting up an automatic responder to Craigslist replies. FlashIssue provides an article on how to do this in Gmail. 

Step 3: Create your Canned response

For your auto-response to emails from Craigslist, you should send the person to your Hemlane listing page, where the prospective tenant can view more details on your property as well as your showing schedule. They can schedule a showing or apply, which will record the tenant lead in Hemlane.

Here is an example of the type of "canned" response that you can set up in your email:  

Hi,

Thanks for your interest in our property at [ADDRESS]. We really look forward to finding a time to meet with you and/or have you apply. 

If you are interested in viewing or applying to our property, then we recommend scheduling a showing here:

If you have additional questions that are not answered in the ad or would like to view the property at another time (not specified in the showing calendar), then please send an email to [EMAIL ADDRESS @ DOMAIN DOT COM]

Thanks!