To Leverage an Addiction

I love it when something I do compulsively actually adds value to my life.

Take Craigslist, for instance. Despite its godawful design reminiscent of a circa-90’s beta website, I’ve been a three times-a-day Craigslist junkie for more than a decade.

Through the years, I’ve bought and sold bikes, cars, fish, foosball tables, dining tables, and conference tables. I’ve staged entire houses I was flipping with Craigslist couches and decor. I’ve hired real estate employees and plumbers and guys with trucks to move hot tubs.

I even found our pool guy, Leo who wowed my eight-year-old son with stories of the salt mines of Europe and then subsequently screwed us out of a thousand dollars worth of pool equipment. That a-hole.
 I confess, I’ve spent a dizzying amount of time and cash inside the quirky world of Craigslist. Luckily, I’ve also learned to leverage my addiction.

Last year while trolling for deals on the site, I came across several properties whose owners needed to sell quickly and didn’t care to use an agent. Since I’m also in the business of investing and had cash in hand, I was able to give them their price in their time-frame with no contingencies.

One deal netted me thirty-seven thousand dollars, the other fifty-nine thousand. Ninety-six thousand dollars of profit from a side hobby.

Now, whenever my wife rolls her eyes at my obsession with this archaic online marketplace known as Craigslist, she knows I’m wasting my time in the best possible way.