The Craigslist Change That Apartment Hunters Will Love

• February 4, 2013
• 4 Comments

by Shilpi Paul

Craigslist’s new grid view.

Trying to find a suitable apartment rental on Craigslist has always been a patience-requiring experience akin to spending hours in a thrift store searching for gems. This is largely because if you want to see what an apartment looks like, you have to click-through dozens (or in worst-case scenarios, hundreds) of individual rental links.

However, the formerly plain website just got a bit of a makeover that may provide relief from this tedious routine. The site recently released several new layout options that will make apartment and furniture hunting much more efficient.

The new map view.

The grid view, with a Pinterest-like layout, makes the job of finding the right apartment, house, couch or dresser much quicker, as the provided photo is large enough to reveal important details. The map view may be best for apartment hunters as it will help keep apartment owners honest when they say “ this apartment is right in the middle of Logan Circle.”

Now all the site needs to do is come up with a way to determine which of the posts are scams.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/craigslist_revamps_layout_adds_photos_and_maps/6606

4 Comments

1. Logan Lady said at 9:34 pm on Monday February 4, 2013:
   You can pretty much tell which ones are scams based on the price. For instance you can't get a 1BR in Georgetown for $950/month.

1. Cap Hill Slumdog said at 9:43 pm on Monday February 4, 2013:
   I've rented my place via Craig's List for the past 8 years. These improvements will be helpful, but renters will continue to ask questions that have already been answered in the descriptions. People just don't read. And the scams go both ways - I've had prospects with all sorts of b.s. stories.

1. mona said at 11:15 pm on Monday February 4, 2013:
   I have been renting my apartments via craigslist for sometime but I am always hearing from tenants and potential tenants that it is getting to hard to sort through the scams to find the decent places.As a landlord I can figure out the scams from the others. I am looking for some place else to look for tenants beyond craigslist. I think its novelty and use is coming to an end

1. Nick CL said at 11:39 pm on Saturday March 9, 2013:
   I've found a couple of places using Craigslist. That feature really helps give a better idea of the exact location. And in response to Cap Hill Slumdog, people that don't read the full ads and ask questions that are already answered can be very annoying. But that's how Craigslist is, unfortunately.