Lesson 27: Facebook Marketplace Land Marketing

Why Social Media?

The truth: many land buyers discover property through social media scrolling than through traditional real estate searches. Facebook Marketplace has become one of the most powerful tools for land sales — if you know how to use it.

For high-value properties ($100K+), it may be worth exploring extras like:

Instagram ads
Google Display ads
YouTube ads
LinkedIn (for commercial/large parcels)

But for most lots under $100K, the bare minimum strategy that works best is:

👉 Facebook Marketplace + Boosted Post

Step 1: Post on Facebook Marketplace (The Right Way)

It's tempting to list land under "Housing," but here's why you shouldn't:

Housing forces you to input things like "1 bed / 0 bath." That makes it look like a tiny house instead of land.
Housing removes your ability to create a custom headline — which is one of the most important parts of grabbing attention for land and coming up in search.

Instead:

Choose Miscellaneous → Other as your category.
Upload your best photos (lead with drone + lot lines).
Write a short, bold title including the main land keywords (e.g., "1+ Acre Lot / Land in Sevierville, TN – Power + Water Ready, 12 Min to the Smokies").

🚫 Important: Don't put the full property address in the description or listing details. Only mention the city/town. Why?

If you post the full address, buyers can just plug it into GPS and go look without ever contacting you. That kills your leads.
When people message you instead, you capture their info — which means you can follow up, and they'll have your reply saved in their messages as a reference point if they forget.

This small change alone can double or triple the number of inquiries you get.

✅ Pro Tip 1: Always lead with acreage and location — that's what drives clicks.

✅ Pro Tip 2: Before posting, you should have already joined multiple local buying/selling and land-specific Facebook groups. When you publish your Marketplace listing, Facebook will automatically show the groups where your membership was approved and give you the option to check them off to post the listing inside those groups too. The more relevant groups you share into, the more exposure you'll get — and this can multiply your leads beyond Marketplace alone.

Step 2: Boost the Listing

Boosting gets your post seen beyond Marketplace — showing it in local FB feeds and searches.

⚠️ One catch:

Facebook often requires land ads to be placed under the "Housing" category before it will approve a boosted post.

If your Miscellaneous listing gets denied, don't panic. Just delete the boost and resubmit it fresh. It may take a couple of tries, but most of the time it eventually goes through.

Worst case, if it still won't approve, simply relist it under the Housing category. It will still reach serious buyers—you'll just need to make the description crystal clear from the start with a line like:

"This is a LAND-ONLY listing."

How to Boost:

Click Boost Post on your Marketplace ad.
Budget:
- Start at $3/day minimum.
- Best practice: $5–10/day for 10 days. Ads get the most traction when they're fresh, so the first 7–10 days are critical.
- Scale up if you're getting quality inquiries.

Step 3: Respond Fast, But Right

Speed matters. Most buyers on Marketplace message multiple sellers at once, and the one who replies first usually gets a better shot at find the right buyer.

But here's the key: 95% of initial messages will just be the default "Is this still available?"

Don't waste time writing long custom replies to these.
Simply respond "Yes" right away. That filters out the tire-kickers. If they're serious, they'll follow up with a real question.

👉 Anyone who sends a custom message ("Can I see this?" / "Where exactly is it?" / "Does it allow RVs?") deserves a custom response. That's your cue they're more serious.

A lot of sellers wrongly claim Facebook Marketplace is a waste of time because of the flood of "Is this available?" messages. The truth: you only need one buyer. If 300 people message you and 299 go nowhere, the 300th person — the one who actually became your buyer — makes it all worth it. You didn't waste time writing 300 custom replies — you just replied "Yes" in a second, and that quick reply connected you to the buyer who bought your land.

⚡ Pro Tip: Respond fast, keep it short, and let the volume work for you instead of against you.

💡 Coming Up Soon: The Marketplace Financing Hack

Here's something to keep in mind: many Facebook Marketplace buyers are looking for owner financing because they can't qualify for traditional loans. Most sellers ignore them — but that's a mistake. We've sold many properties on FB Marketplace by connecting these buyers with private lenders who specialize in land deals and financing people banks won't touch. This is the hack that turns "unqualified" buyers into your best buyers — and often lets you sell for more than competing lots that don't offer solutions.

Lesson 27 of 37