Real estate trade mag The Real Deal reports on Craigslist's possible plans to start charging for real estate ads. It's a move that's been rumored for awhile, one that would be made in part to cut down on duplication and confusion given the explosion of ads on the site:
For the same period, the [New York Craigslist] site now gets 400,000 new apartment listings a month, double its numbers last year. Its unique monthly listings have jumped to 40,000 from 20,000 a year ago. While most apartment hunters use Craigslist to find rentals, the site?s sale property ads have jumped to 30,000 from 9,000 a year ago and its unique sale listings are now estimated at 3,000 a month, up from about 1,000 a month in October 2003.Seeking insight from Craig himself, we scanned his speaker profile for the Real Estate Connect event taking place at the Waldorf next month. Asked, "What kind of music do you listen to?" Craig responds, "Unusual selection of music by artist, including Leonard Cohen, Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, Warren Zevon, Sophie B Hawkins." Hmmm.
· End to free Web ads may be near [The Real Deal]
· Craig Newmark, a Man of Many Lists [Inman News, sub req'd]