Facebook Marketplace Issue - Listing not searchable

[Matt Crisp]

In recent years I have been using Facebook  Marketplace to find tenants for my Class C units. In fact, it was so good I had been exclusively using it. In recent years though I have noticed this startling trend where my posts are getting less and less views - to the point where my most recent one has none!

If I do a search for my post on Marketplace ( e.g. "City, St Rental") it doesn't show up. Its crazy how I used to get hundreds of inquiries and now it's zero. Of course there is no easy way to contact Facebook, but wanted to see if any other fellow BP'ers out there are experiencing the same problem and found a resolution? Surely I can't be the only one!

[Wesley W.]

I self manage my own C-class properties so I'm dealing with the same demographic you are.  FB is infamously quirky with this kind of stuff.  It's inexplicable and used to happen to me.  My working theory is enough former prospects (usually out of spite for being unqualified) or unscrupulous competitors have reported your post, that the AI thinks you are a scammer, so you are essentially shadow banned.  Best I can determine there is no formal "human" review of any of this nonsense.

To mitigate exposure, when I post an ad, I include the following:

If interested in setting up a viewing, please message me for pre-screening questions sent via email.

After they, respond I send them a list of my pre-screening questions via Messenger, and end with:

Please send your responses directly to my email, below. I will not respond to any messages on this thread. I am receiving inquiries from multiple sites, and I am responding to all questions as well as screening candidates via email. This is not a scam; we own and operate in [local market].

If they respond with ANYTHING via Messenger, I ignore it for two reasons.  First, this is another form of pre-screening for me.  Is the prospect able to follow these directions, or do they think my system is for "other people"?  Secondly, if you exchange communication over Messenger, the FB algorithm thinks you are conducting a transaction and allows this prospect to rate you on FB Marketplace, which will negatively affect your "community score" and affect your ads' visibility.

FB is my least favorite medium to advertise and I feel dirty using it because of their "advocacy" in recent years, but it does give me more eyeballs.  My most qualified candidates still come from the other sites (Zillow, CL, Apts.com).  I find the FB prospects are less qualified and more labor intensive with the screening process.  Anyways, that's my experience.

Good luck.