In November, a flurry of articles covered some big changes in the way real estate is represented on Craigslist. It's been a few months, the dust has settled, and it's time to take another look at the reported changes and the current conditions.

The Sky Is Falling

The changes in Craigslist were greeted with a collective gasp. Many industry commentators called it a major change in the way real estate agents can market properties. The technical explanation is that Craigslist discontinued the use of certain HTML tags used for the creation of enhanced listings. The practical impact is that, if you were using an application that created pretty, branded Craigslist posts (you know, the kind that looked just like a flyer), your ads would now just look like everyone else's. And, just as important, you couldn't include any links.

Looking Good

I'm not a real estate agent, so I can't regale you with any personal experience. Instead, all I can do is tell you what I see from a consumer's perspective. I visited Craigslist and checked out some listings in my area. Guess what? They still contain all the information I want about a property – including property photos, a map, number of beds/baths, etc. I can copy and paste a URL to search for more information.