Quick Step-By-Step Guide to Facebook Marketplace Deals

Who doesn’t love a good deal? We’ve scored most of our best deals on Facebook Marketplace and have saved thousands of dollars in the process. Last time we shared our top tips for scoring deals on Facebook Marketplace. Today, we’re putting it all together in a quick step-by-step guide to Facebook Marketplace deals. We’ll make it easy! We’ll also finish the story of how we scored a free John Deere 335 on Marketplace.

What are the best ways to score a deal on Facebook Marketplace?

If you haven’t read our last post, check it out for more on our top tips. They are:

1. Understand the market for the product you’re buying
2. Expand your search radius
3. Check Marketplace often and set alerts
4. Adjust your search
5. Check out the seller
6. Know how to communicate on Facebook Marketplace
7. Show up!

How I search for a deal on Facebook Marketplace

Last year, I was looking for a snowblower attachment for my John Deere. I not only found my snowblower, but ended up with a free tiller, wheel weights, and a complete tractor, all for $320. (The total value of all this is over $1500.) Let’s put it all together and I’ll show you how I scored my best JD deal!

Quick step-by-step guide to Facebook Marketplace deals

Don’t forget to check out our last post for a thorough explanation of how to search for a deal. Here’s the quick version of how to succeed on Facebook Marketplace!

1. Search specifically in your area. When looking for my snowblower, I started my search by just looking within 20 miles for the exact product I wanted.
2. Expand your search. Next, I expanded my search to see what this type of snowblower was selling for. I also checked other websites to compare prices.
3. Decide what you’re willing to spend. I knew I could get it for $400 or less and didn’t want to spend any more than that. If I found a great product a little farther away, I would have reduced my limit a bit. For example, if had to drive two hours, I might have only spent $350.
4. Adjust your keywords. Remember, items are often mislabeled. Try different keywords and more general searches. In this case, “John Deere”, “snowblower”, “JD”, etc.
5. Set an alert on your phone. I used “John Deere snowblower” as my alert.
6. Be patient and let the algorithms work. It took about a month for me to find the snowblower I was looking for. Fortunately, I had started in summer and not in November!
7. Check out the seller. Make sure they’re not a scammer. My snowblower seller seemed like a regular guy with decent Facebook reviews and he wasn’t selling any other John Deere products.
8. Make a reasonable offer. I offered $80 less on the snowblower since I knew it would cost me that much to fix the broken belt. (I informed the seller of this in my message and they agreed.)
9. Show up! Be polite and courteous. Give the seller at ETA if appropriate—be respectful of their time.

Why I got a free John Deere

When I showed up to pick up the snowblower, I started talking with the guy and found out that it had come off his JD 325, which had a seized engine and was sitting off in the grass. I looked over and noticed that the mower had a tiller sitting near it, so I asked if that was for sale, too. Apparently, he was ready to see it out of his yard, and he offered me the tiller and wheel weights for free. I loaded up and came home feeling pretty pumped about the deal!

A few days later as I was mounting the snowblower, I realized that there was a lift kit that had been left on the tractor and was needed for mounting. Since it wasn’t too far away, I asked if I could come back to get it off, and the seller agreed. I showed up after work, and he and I struggled for about 45 minutes in the dark to take off the part. When we were unsuccessful, to my surprise, he offered to just give me the entire mower to take home and work on later. He then proceeded to load it up on his trailer and drive it to my house (I didn’t have a trailer with me at the time, as I was only expecting to pick up a small part!).

You’d be surprised at how often people have stuff sitting in their house or yard that they just want gone and don’t have the time or energy to deal with or advertise. While I was pretty shocked by this deal, the seller informed me that he was happy to make a little money and clean up his yard. He didn’t have the time or desire to do anything else with it.

I ended up fixing the engine, selling the mower, and making $800 off of a few hours of work.

Other deals we’ve scored

This free John Deere was just one of a whole bunch of great deals we’ve scored.

Another favorite is our kitchen sink. When we were remodeling the house, we decided we wanted a bigger, nicer sink. I found one about an hour away that was exactly what we wanted for a decent price ($250). When I arrived, I realized that the seller had messaged me to let me know that they had found a crack in the sink that morning. They were so sorry they had not found it before I was almost already there. They then offered me the sink for free. I took it home and epoxied the crack (a 10-minute job). Two years later, it’s working great, and the crack is nearly invisible. It would have cost us about $400 to purchase this same sink at Home Depot.

We also saved about $3000 on our truck from Facebook Marketplace. The seller had mislabeled the ad and put the milage in the “year” box. This made it nearly impossible to find using a specific search. Because I had searched around using more general searches, I was able to score a great deal on the truck. The seller knew the value and used Marketplace because it was his preferred way to sell the truck more quickly. The problem was that people simply couldn’t find it. By expanding my search parameters, I was able to be the first one to find and jump on the deal.

We’ve also saved hundreds on our nearly-new couches, our solid oak computer desk, all of our kids’ furniture, our stove, our refrigerator, and tons more items.

Follow this quick step-by-step guide to Facebook Marketplace deals to save money!

This quick, step-by-step guide is the exact formula that we’ve used to score dozens of deals and save thousands of dollars.

1. Search specifically in your area.
2. Expand your search.
3. Decide what you’re willing to spend.
4. Adjust your keywords.
5. Set an alert on your phone.
6. Be patient and let the algorithms work.
7. Check out the seller.
8. Make a reasonable offer.
9. Show up!

Stretching the funds you have is a great way to be a good steward of your income. We’ve found that secondhand finds are a great way to maximize our income, support sellers rather than big box stores, maximize the usage of goods, make our home inviting, and care for our family.

Want to learn more about Facebook Marketplace? Check out our other posts:

Scoring Deals on Facebook Marketplace

7 Tips to Avoid Scams on Facebook Marketplace