New Craigslist changes affect real estate ads

Craigslist, the free online classifieds giant, recently made changes to its posting guidelines, specifically around what HTML tags are allowed in their sales categories.

These new changes are having a dramatic effect on real estate ads on the site. The changes mean that any images and links posted using HTML code or the use of images to link to external pages no longer work.

Craigslist’s new guidelines say: “Please note IMG, FONT, TABLE, DIV, and SPAN tags are no longer supported in the for sale categories. Please use CL image upload for images.”

Real estate ads must now be simple text ads (no borders, colored text, special fonts, etc.). Pictures are allowed, but they must be uploaded directly to Craigslist rather than embedded using HTML code. Hyperlinks cannot be added to any images.

If you have any existing ads in the housing section of Craigslist, be sure to check them immediately. The layout may have changed and important hyperlinks will be gone. Depending on how much HTML formatting was in the ads, some ads may be completely outdated and should be deleted.

Craigslist has been rolling out these changes gradually since the middle of October, but as of early November these changes have been implemented and enforced site wide. While there has not been a definitive answer provided by Craigslist for making these changes, the most common assumption is that disallowing HTML will enhance site security and increase consistency of ads across the site.