Classified ad pricing may fall to near zero, experts say
Definitely watch for this trend to accelerate in the next 2-5 years. The biggest reason is that the Internet is getting much better at aggregating ads from many different sources and letting people search for them all in one place.
Why check Craigslist, your local newspaper, your local suburban newspaper, your alternative weekly newspaper, the glossy “for rent” magazines at the grocery store, Rent.com, Apartments.com, ForRent.com, etc. if you can search everything in one place like Oodle.com?
The biggest frustration for anyone looking for a rental is the time they spend checking different sources and never being sure they’ve found enough ads. Why has this happened? Because too many rental listing websites have all tried to own all of the “the market” for themselves, and in the process, frustrated the goal of apartment hunters, by creating massive fragmentation.
In the not too distant future, you will be able to search multiple different sources from a single apartment listing search engine.
So the real reason classified ads will be free in the future is that it’s actually MORE hassle for people to check the classifieds than it is to search a single website for for listings. In this case, the newspapers quickly become a conduit to feeding the aggregators.
Comments
One response to “Good news for apartment hunters and landlords alike– free ads”
People have been able to post items for free on Craigslist for quite some time. I think the problem is the over-posting of the same things and the lack of detail. People want to see as many photos, videos and details as they can before driving out to look at a rental. And that’s where the free listings fall short. Craigslist and Oodle are good for what they are, but searching on Google gives you