From the other side of the aisle, let me tell you my craigslist experience as a renter of rooms. In short, no issues at all.
Here's what I look for, as a renter:
- Excellent grammar. If u typ lik dis, I ignore your email.
- Good responsiveness and conversation. A day or two is fine, though I prefer responses within several hours; and I expect the person to answer all of my questions and ask their own.
- Good photos. If you have no photos or a single grainy photo of the house, I don't immediately discount you but I press for more photos. There are a lot of scams where someone "rents" a house they don't actually own.
- Ability to set up a meet-and-greet fairly quickly.
- That the deal and the person "smell" good, so to speak.
As a landlord, you should look for pretty much the same exact things, less photos. Good grammar, reasonable and understanding, responds on time, and so on.
As a renter, my spiel when posting a "room wanted" ad was pretty much: Hi, single young male adult, college kid / working on coop at [big company everyone knows], don't smoke / do drugs, am quiet, like to do nerd stuff and go hiking (gotta make it a little bit personalized!), here's a nice photo of me hiking (so you see I'm a real person, or at least a face to remember, instead of one of the faceless masses.)