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Boudicca
Joined: 29 May 2006
Posts: 37
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 Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 8:51 am Post subject: Is Gumtree Accomodation section finished? |
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I've been very happily recruiting lodgers from Gumtree's short term section for nearly 4 years now, it's worked really well for me and I've had lots of interesting and well-behaved tenants.
But I've been advertising for 3 weeks now - not one response and only 28 views of my ad?
Have the scammers driven the genuine flatseekers away? |
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montyzuma
Community Moderator
Joined: 25 Jul 2007
Posts: 7536
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| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 8:53 am Post subject: |
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| I wouldnt have thought so. |
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Mr_X
Joined: 18 Jan 2007
Posts: 207
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| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:27 am Post subject: |
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could be.
Today I reported 45 Scam ads, and that's only in the Long Term one bedroom flats (north of the river) sections |
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montyzuma
Community Moderator
Joined: 25 Jul 2007
Posts: 7536
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| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:30 am Post subject: |
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WHICH AREA ARE WE TALKING ABOUT HERE?
person above is talking about people replying to her ads |
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Bluey
Community Moderator
Joined: 21 Mar 2006
Posts: 5643
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| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:44 pm Post subject: Re: Is Gumtree Accomodation section finished? |
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| Boudicca wrote: | I've been very happily recruiting lodgers from Gumtree's short term section for nearly 4 years now, it's worked really well for me and I've had lots of interesting and well-behaved tenants.
But I've been advertising for 3 weeks now - not one response and only 28 views of my ad?
Have the scammers driven the genuine flatseekers away? |
Possibly. I have friends that will only use paid sites like Spareroom.co.uk not just because of scammers but because they feel the quality of tenants using a freeby site is lower - they get a lot more time-wasters, bargain hunters and unsuitable applicants (i.e. broke, transient, speculative). Perhaps this is because Gumtree is largely free text whereas Spareroom is structured and its easily to perform filtered searches.
They are amazed by how many times they put in fairly basic criteria for their tenants (female, working, long-term) and get enquiries from male DSS or students that just want accommodation for a month. I think the way Gumtree is set up encourages people to blast through the ads making enquiries instead of being a bit more focussed, hence loads of timewasters.
But other reasons are because of time of year (students start their search in earnest in August). Also due to general economic factors - less visitors to London, because there is a glut of properties available due to there being so many accidental landlords or people struggling with mortgages that now take in lodgers, or because people are less likely to move if they feel their job is not secure.
Have you checked how much accommodation is being offered in your area versus how many wanted ads there are for it? And compared your prices to it? |
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Boudicca
Joined: 29 May 2006
Posts: 37
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| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:08 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, I've compared prices, some are lower, some higher, some the same. Have also tried lowering the rent, still nothing happening.
I do get a lot of overseas tenants as I am flexible about how long people stay, so maybe it is the recession. |
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gum-man
Joined: 25 Jun 2009
Posts: 4
Location: North London
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| Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 9:57 pm Post subject: is gumtree accommodation finished |
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[b] I have had similar experiences and never known it so bad. I have gone for the past three weeks posting a room every day, i must have had only 6 phone callsI have been renting one or two rooms for many years and depend on the income.
Something very strange is happening but i can't work it out. It has all just suddenly gone silent. It's true that lots of first time "landlords" are trying it out. Its ruined the whole situation for everyone[/b] |
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**Pika**
Joined: 23 Jul 2009
Posts: 42
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| Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 9:44 am Post subject: |
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| I don't know about anyone else, but I'm finding that sometomes I'll post an ad and it won't show up for days. I also keep trying to post which never shows, but then I got an email from gumtree telling me to repost it as it will expire soon, so it's obviously not banned. Whats the craic gumtree, are you bored with us?! |
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**Pika**
Joined: 23 Jul 2009
Posts: 42
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| Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 12:57 pm Post subject: |
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And yet again none of yesterday's "offered" ads have been posted on the Sunderland site. This is getting beyond a joke.... Moderators, what's going on here please?
Don't wanna sound like I'm being needlessly grumpy here, but it is now nearly 2pm on Firday and it doesn't exactly help business much! Sorry!  |
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Sanne
Joined: 09 Dec 2006
Posts: 189
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| Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 1:23 pm Post subject: |
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| I stopped contacting people on Gumtree about flats because last time I looked all but 2 of the places advertised turned out to be scams, and the others had already been taken. So I am wary about looking for another place on Gumtree because unfortunately it has been taken over by Nigerian scammers |
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nickora
Joined: 24 Jun 2009
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 2:21 pm Post subject: houseing |
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| Thats really dissappointing that you have such a poor response. I have to admit that Im not surprised though, the recent scam scenario within the housing sector hasnt installed a great deal of confidence |
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LondonChap
Joined: 07 Sep 2009
Posts: 1025
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 2:31 pm Post subject: |
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The sales are drying up everywhere here .
Gumtree seems to be losing members rapidly , even in baby stuff for sale |
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nickora
Joined: 24 Jun 2009
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 2:38 pm Post subject: |
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| LondonChap wrote: | The sales are drying up everywhere here .
Gumtree seems to be losing members rapidly , even in baby stuff for sale |
Hmmm, well, general internet rules are if there's a demand for something another site will pop up soon for it... |
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montyzuma
Community Moderator
Joined: 25 Jul 2007
Posts: 7536
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 2:42 pm Post subject: |
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| LondonChap wrote: | The sales are drying up everywhere here .
Gumtree seems to be losing members rapidly , even in baby stuff for sale |
hOW DO YOU KNOW? |
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LondonChap
Joined: 07 Sep 2009
Posts: 1025
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:01 pm Post subject: |
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| montyzuma wrote: | | LondonChap wrote: | The sales are drying up everywhere here .
Gumtree seems to be losing members rapidly , even in baby stuff for sale |
hOW DO YOU KNOW? |
Because I am selling stuff there and you can see the view counts on all the items.
Even the other sellers view counts are way down on what they used to be.
Gumtree needs to do some self promotion bigtime if it is to get back to how good it used to be |
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montyzuma
Community Moderator
Joined: 25 Jul 2007
Posts: 7536
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:02 pm Post subject: |
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| IVE POINTED SOMEONE AT YORU COMMENTS |
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jonin60seconds
Gumtree Admin
Joined: 18 Mar 2009
Posts: 1286
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:30 pm Post subject: |
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Nope not true. Gumtree is growing rapidly. Remember there are millions of ads on Gumtree so using 2/3 to prove a case is not valid.
When I started here, Gumtree was 16th on Hitwise's retail sites list, we are now 9th! So we are actually growing at a very rapid pace.
I also watch the Twitter wires all day and there are lots of comments of happy people buying / selling stuff on Gumtree. If your ad is not working, re-write it, take out a feature or add some pictures.
Some Twitter comments about successful Gumtree transactions in the last two days:
"Using Freecycle & Gumtree to give away some old junk. 5 people want my 10 year old analogue TV (!?) Hackney folk are frugal!"
"pre-sold his fridge and washer ! Hail Gumtree \o/"
"Ingrid (I think you've met her) another girl Pia and Nick, a Gumtree find - all good so far!"
"Damnit Gumtree people- I post, and you're on it in less than 5 mins! Impressed"
"What a day. Sold my van after about 100 phone calls and people fucking me about. Gumtree is actually amazing. I am douched. I am gone x" |
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nickora
Joined: 24 Jun 2009
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:47 pm Post subject: hackney folk |
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| Haha, I must say I laughed at the Hackney folk comment, lol. anyway thanks for posting that. |
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jonin60seconds
Gumtree Admin
Joined: 18 Mar 2009
Posts: 1286
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Yeah didn't mean to insult anyone from Hackney, simply paraphrasing! |
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nickora
Joined: 24 Jun 2009
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:56 pm Post subject: |
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| jonin60seconds wrote: | | Yeah didn't mean to insult anyone from Hackney, simply paraphrasing! |
Yes of course, someone else wrote it and it seems like thier from hackney too to have been selling stuff there so its all good im sure. 
it still makes you wonder why the comments above have been finding problems, the manner of writing adverts may well be the issue, but there might be more to it than that. You say that gumtree as a whole is growing, but do you monitor the different sections as in depth as that? id imagine you do as your watching the twitter comments.
and what about spam recently? i have used gumtree for a while and i dont know if i could actually say the amount of spam has gone up or if i just noice it more now. i think i have become quite aware of what constitutes as spam in adverts and am a bit more careful with it nowadays. |
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jonin60seconds
Gumtree Admin
Joined: 18 Mar 2009
Posts: 1286
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 4:07 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah this poor website gets analysed to the trees and back. If there were drops offs in activity in any section, we would no about it and do something about it.
Spam is drastically down since we started rolling out captcha across the site and we are now working on reducing the scams. Getting there! |
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nickora
Joined: 24 Jun 2009
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 4:08 pm Post subject: spam |
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would you mind doing the rest of the internet while your there?  |
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jonin60seconds
Gumtree Admin
Joined: 18 Mar 2009
Posts: 1286
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 4:14 pm Post subject: |
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| I wish! Hopefully other sites will copy what we do and at least make it extremely difficult for would be scammers to operate on the Internet |
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Mr_X
Joined: 18 Jan 2007
Posts: 207
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jonin60seconds
Gumtree Admin
Joined: 18 Mar 2009
Posts: 1286
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| Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:50 am Post subject: |
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you're 2 mins ahead of the mods. If you check the ads at the top, they are being removed as we speak. I've gotta say, thats pretty quick!
Thanks for reporting them! |
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