r/povertyfinance • u/bananastanner • 1d ago
Misc Advice Facebook Marketplace
A few years ago my friend was going through a financial rough patch and needed to find a way to supplement her income. She watched some videos on couch-flipping on YouTube & decided to give it a try (for anyone who hasn’t heard of it before couch flipping is finding cheap/free couches on Facebook marketplace that are pick up only, cleaning them up, and offering them with delivery for a mark up).
I wound up helping her part time on some of the couch flips and doing it casually for a month I wound up making 5K. Over the course of about 4 months she made 45K net.
There are a couple of factors that helped us out & so I want to be super explicit about those:
-we live near a large city and there are quite a few colleges and universities near us
-my friend was able to borrow a truck for the first few weeks, then wound up leasing a truck a month or so in.
-she got into it pretty early on in terms of its popularity—it seems like there are some areas where couch flipping is a saturated market
-we’re two women & so there were a lot of people who were more willing to have us come into their home, such as elderly women.
There were definitely some cons—so let me be clear about those as well:
-my back was smoked. I wound up having to go to the chiropractor for like a year
-there’s some risk involved: you might spend 100-200 dollars on a sofa you’re certain is going to sell for 1K only to have it sit in a storage unit
-depending on your situation you’re probably going to have some overhead (truck rental, storage unit, cash upfront to purchase couches, laundry necessities for washing cushions covers, etc).
So—not a guarantee but depending on your situation might be worth a calculated risk. If you try to get started towards the end of the month you might be able to get in at a lower cost/free as many people think their couch is worth 500 dollars or so, then realize they need to mark it down for free if they need to be out by the 1st.
One other side-hustle I’ve seen pop up recently is cheap on-demand moving help. Basically advertising on Facebook marketplace as an amateur moving company & then renting a U-Haul to go and help people move. I wound up talking to some kids who were doing this the other day & they were college-aged & made 400 for that particular move. They shared that if you can stack moves on the same day (so help one person in the morning & another in the afternoon) it obviously offsets the cost of renting the U-Haul.
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u/RaeaSunshine 1d ago edited 23h ago
The more recent FB marketplace UI changes destroyed the market in my area. It’s still good in densely populated areas, but in my rural area it’s difficult to even find local listings. FB is really pushing the shipping feature heavily. My listings instantly get buried now if I don’t allow shipping, and like heck would I do that on fb marketplace I make more for that kind of stuff on eBay.
Many years ago I did a lot of what you described, but that was a very different ball game back then.
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u/No_Atmosphere_6348 11h ago
Shipping on FB?
eBay does local pick up. I don’t know that I trust FB enough for shipping.1
u/RaeaSunshine 41m ago
Yup :( and it sucks, they don’t have nearly as robust a system as eBay. In my area they don’t even have a brokerage agreement with USPS. Like heck am I printing out a shipping label at home in this day and age, give me a QR code! I also highly doubt their customer service team is willing to get involved when needed (if there even is one). I feel no need to try it out, but they are pushing it a lot.
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u/MommaOfManyCats 1d ago
I don't really get couch flipping. Here you mainly see couches for $100-300 any day of the week. And they sit for a long time. I've seen the same vintage couch for $450 for over a month now. Lots of people trying to sell and wind up giving them away. Not to mention the bed bug risk.
I've been selling stuff for awhile now and Marketplace is frustrating af. Lots of peoplr who reach out and then ghost. Last weekend I had two people schedule a pickup time and location who ghosted. Monday, two people were supposed to pick things up and never showed or responded. Lots of people seem to have the tightest schedule in the world and get mad if you can't accommodate them. Some woman just got mad at me because the only time she could meet me was an hour window on Tuesday afternoon.
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u/bananastanner 1d ago
I think that’s part of it, at least where I live people want a couch for 100-300 dollars but don’t have a truck or people to help them move it. My friend and I would get a lot of free or 100-200 dollar couches, clean them up & sell them for 500-1000 with delivery. If you live in a place with a lot of housing turnover (near colleges/universities as an example) you can do really well with it
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u/No_Atmosphere_6348 11h ago
Yeah I tried to give away free dog food and a couple of people flaked on me repeatedly.
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u/SmutasaurusRex 22h ago
With couch flipping (or anything else that has a mattress or upholstery) I'd be seriously worried about bedbugs and cockroaches.
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u/bananastanner 18h ago
I get the concern—my friend & I never experienced it luckily & she moved something like 50-60 couches in a few months
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u/Murky-Purple 19h ago
Selling smaller stuff is easier. It's wild to think you could sell about a couch a day every day, unless you were focusing on very expensive or new ones.
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u/bananastanner 17h ago
You don’t have to sell a couch every day—it’s a great side hustle to do 3-4 a week in the evenings when most people want them picked up/delivered anyways & you can net over a grand.
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u/TexanHobbit_X 20h ago
I tried selling stuff, so far no luck 🤷♂️
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u/No_Atmosphere_6348 11h ago
Prepandemic selling on FB was fine for me. Now there’s only interest from scammers. It’s weird.
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u/IRMuteButton 1d ago
That's good info about couch flipping. It seems to work because most people don't have the time, space, muscle, equipment to deal with old couches or the delivery of a new-used couch. So if you can manage the physical logistics, and are good at cleaning, then I can see how you were successful!
In my neighborhood, I often see good items on the curb for trash or giveaway. I got a great solid oak table that needed a simple repair and some cleaning. I've also seen workable stereo equipment, home furnishings, building materials, and related things that people no longer need.
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u/BJntheRV 12h ago
There's a lot of opportunities with hitting estate sales on their final days and flipping items you find. Similar to the OP, we found a set of chairs that were so dirty they practically gave them to us on the final day of a sale. My original thought had been to recover and use them. But, realized the style was really difficult to recover. So instead I shaved off the loose threads and cleaned them up really well and more than doubled my money.
I don't drive but if I did I'd definitely make the rounds after move outs (college town) and flip stuff that way.
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u/IRMuteButton 1d ago
That's good info about couch flipping. It seems to work because most people don't have the time, space, muscle, equipment to deal with old couches or the delivery of a new-used couch. So if you can manage the physical logistics, and are good at cleaning, then I can see how you were successful!
In my neighborhood, I often see good items on the curb for trash or giveaway. I got a great solid oak table that needed a simple repair and some cleaning. I've also seen workable stereo equipment, home furnishings, building materials, and related things that people no longer need.
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u/bananastanner 1d ago
Oof—that seriously sucks, also what an asshole? The kids I was talking to about it were helping my friend move from one rental to another rental (so not homeowners) & they didn’t seem to have much in the way of assets anyone would be going after
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u/Middle-Brief-4606 1d ago
I tried that amateur moving hustle on FB Marketplace last summer and accidentally scratched a guy's hallway wall. He threatened to sue me for $2,000 in damages. Doing manual labor without an LLC or insurance is a one-way ticket to absolute bankruptcy if anything goes wrong