Advice for Buying and Selling Furniture on Craigslist

The current top destination for buying and selling households goods is Craigslist, the global online classified website. One of the most popular functions on Craigslist is buying and selling household furniture. It’s an economical way to furnish a home, but, like everything, getting the best results with household goods on Craigslist depends on how you operate. If you’re selling, it’s important to take good photos, describe the item well and make it easy for people to find you. If you’re buying, you need to move quickly to get the best items, and you’ll usually have to arrange to transport the furniture you’re interested in purchasing. Craigslist is a local business, and it’s a cash business. That means if you get an email response to your ad asking you to ship an item, promising a cashier’s check, suggesting a wire transfer or otherwise proposing anything but an in-person meeting, it’s likely a scam. Craigslist has an entire page about common scams that users should read even before they believe they’re being duped. The other big issue that comes up is safety. While Craigslist estimates its users post more than 80 million ads worldwide every month, counting reposts and renewals, and thousands of people have participated in hundreds of thousands of safe transactions, there have been crimes associated with Craigslist, including murders and robberies. Because these transactions, in many cases, involve going to strangers’ homes or letting strangers into your home, it’s important for you to be careful and aware. “If you’re going to let people into your home, try to have more than one person there,” says Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance. “Be clear that you’re not going to be home alone.” In some cases, you can move the furniture you’re selling into a garage or back porch, so it’s not necessary to let people into your house. This might make the meeting more comfortable for both you and the prospective buyer. While there are people who try to do an entire transaction by text message, sometimes talking by phone is a good way to measure someone’s sincerity as well as find out whether the item is what you want. | Read More