# Motivated Seller Leads - Craigslist FSBO (US) (`swerve/craigslist-motivated-seller-leads`) Actor

Motivated seller leads from Craigslist for-sale-by-owner real estate. Scores each posting for price drops, days on market, owner financing, and must-sell language. Filter by city or state. Owner name, address, phone when posted in the ad, and a motivation score per lead.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/swerve/craigslist-motivated-seller-leads.md
- **Developed by:** [Swerve](https://apify.com/swerve) (community)
- **Categories:** Real estate, Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $5.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Motivated Seller Leads - Craigslist FSBO (US)

Find **motivated home sellers** on Craigslist: for-sale-by-owner real estate, scored by how likely the seller is to need help (price cuts, long time on market, owner financing, "must sell" language). Built for investors, wholesalers and agents who want *seller* leads, not another raw Craigslist dump.

This is the Craigslist sibling of [Motivated Seller Leads (ForSaleByOwner)](https://apify.com/swerve/motivated-seller-leads). Same output shape, so you can merge the two into one call list.

### What you get per lead

Street address, city, price, and the signals that matter:

- **motivationScore** (0-100) and **motivationReasons**
- **isPriceReduced** when the ad says the price dropped
- **daysOnMarket** from the posting date
- **leaseToOwn** (owner financing / rent-to-own)
- **phone** when the owner printed a number in the ad body
- beds, baths, sqft, lot size, photos, description

```json
{
  "source": "craigslist",
  "listingId": "tEP1Pny8kZNV885AZT1Byy",
  "listingUrl": "https://www.craigslist.org/view/d/austin-austin-bungalow-on-229-acres/tEP1Pny8kZNV885AZT1Byy",
  "ownerName": null,
  "streetAddress": "Kellog Ct",
  "city": "Austin", "state": "TX", "postalCode": "78749",
  "price": 329900,
  "isPriceReduced": true,
  "beds": 3, "baths": 1, "sqft": 900, "propertyType": "house",
  "listingDate": "2026-08-11T08:58:07-0500", "daysOnMarket": 19,
  "motivationScore": 40,
  "motivationReasons": ["for-sale-by-owner", "price reduced"],
  "phone": null,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-30T21:00:00.000Z"
}
```

Rental ads, "investors needed" spam, and wholesale-training posts are dropped so the dataset stays a seller list.

### Inputs

| Input | What it does |
|---|---|
| `cities` | Craigslist boards: `austin`, `dallas`, `newyork`, `sfbay`, or `Austin, TX`. |
| `states` | Sweep every major board in those states (Texas is austin, dallas, houston, sanantonio, and the rest of the big metros). |
| `propertyTypes` | Optional: house / condo / townhouse / multi-family / land. Empty = all. |
| `onlyPriceReduced` | Only ads that say the price was dropped. |
| `minDaysOnMarket` | Only postings sitting at least this many days. |
| `minMotivationScore` | Only leads scoring at least this (0 = all, 40+ = clearly motivated). |
| `enrichDetails` | Open each posting for address, date and phone. On by default. |
| `maxItems` | Optional cap. Blank = pull everything matching. |

### About owner phone

Craigslist hides most numbers behind a "show contact info" button. This actor does **not** guess. If the owner wrote a phone in the ad text, it is filled; otherwise `phone` is null and you skip-trace on the street address (the same workflow as the ForSaleByOwner sibling).

### How it works

Each selected city board is queried as real-estate by owner (`/search/rea?purveyor=owner`). The search page is plain HTML (no login). Each posting is then opened for the address, posted date, description and any phone in the body. Listings are scored, filtered, and streamed out as they go.

### Use cases

- Wholesalers / investors building a call list of off-MLS owners.
- Agents hunting for-sale-by-owner sellers who already cut the price or are offering owner financing.
- Combining with the ForSaleByOwner motivated-seller actor for the same market.

# Actor input Schema

## `cities` (type: `array`):

Craigslist city boards to search. Use the site code (austin, dallas, newyork, sfbay) or "City, ST" (Austin, TX). One per line.

## `states` (type: `array`):

Search every major Craigslist board in these states. Use this for a whole-market sweep; use Cities to farm one metro.

## `propertyTypes` (type: `array`):

Which property types to include. Leave empty for all.

## `onlyPriceReduced` (type: `boolean`):

Return only postings that say the price was dropped (a strong motivation signal).

## `minDaysOnMarket` (type: `integer`):

Only return postings that have been up at least this many days (stale = motivated). Leave blank for no minimum.

## `minMotivationScore` (type: `integer`):

Only return leads scoring at least this (price-drop, days-on-market, owner-finance, must-sell language). 0 = keep all, 40+ = clearly motivated.

## `enrichDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Visit every posting to fill street address, posted date, description, and a phone if the owner printed one in the ad. Slower, and the reason this is a lead list instead of a card dump. Leave on.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Cap on total leads. The example value keeps a first run cheap; clear it to pull ALL matching postings on the selected boards.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. Craigslist answers without a proxy; add a US residential proxy only if you get blocked on a large multi-city run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "austin"
  ],
  "states": [],
  "propertyTypes": [],
  "onlyPriceReduced": false,
  "minMotivationScore": 0,
  "enrichDetails": true,
  "maxItems": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "cities": [
        "austin"
    ],
    "states": [],
    "minMotivationScore": 0,
    "maxItems": 50,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("swerve/craigslist-motivated-seller-leads").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "cities": ["austin"],
    "states": [],
    "minMotivationScore": 0,
    "maxItems": 50,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("swerve/craigslist-motivated-seller-leads").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "cities": [
    "austin"
  ],
  "states": [],
  "minMotivationScore": 0,
  "maxItems": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call swerve/craigslist-motivated-seller-leads --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,swerve/craigslist-motivated-seller-leads"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/uqcN3E9nutshxdGlD/builds/c5YcW6FldECPUHLIS/openapi.json