Why Facebook Marketplace Buyers Ghost After "Is This Still Available?" (Data From 10,000+ Chats)

You know the moment.

"Hi, is this still available?"

You reply. Fast. Friendly. Maybe you even add the price and a photo.

Then... nothing. No reply. Not that day, not the next.

Every Marketplace seller has been ghosted like this, so we stopped guessing why and looked at the data. We went through more than 10,000 real Facebook Marketplace conversations handled by GetReplyNow, covering car dealers, rental listings, and everyday items.

1 in 4 buyers only send "Is this still available?"

About 1 in 4 buyer conversations start with Facebook's one-tap message and nothing else. For rental listings it's even higher: almost 4 in 10.

That's because the button costs the buyer nothing. One tap, next listing, one tap, next listing. Many buyers send the same message to ten sellers in a minute.

So when a buyer goes quiet, it's usually not about you. You were one of ten.

About half of buyers go quiet, even when you reply within a minute

Every conversation in our data got a reply within minutes. Most got one within a minute.

Still, about half of buyers never sent a second message.

Fast replies matter (you can't win a buyer who already bought from someone else), but speed alone doesn't stop ghosting. Buyers get distracted, wait for payday, ask their partner, or find something closer.

Two myths we can put to rest:

• "'Is it available' buyers aren't serious." Wrong. They go quiet at about the same rate as buyers who type a full question. Treat them like real leads.
• "End your reply with a question and they'll answer." It barely changed anything in our data. A question is fine, but it won't save the conversation by itself.

Cars vs rentals: very different buyers

The ghosting rate changes a lot by industry.

Car dealers: buyers are shopping five dealers at once

Car buyers ghost the most. They message several dealers about similar cars, compare prices, wait on financing, and often decide over a weekend. Lots of them write in the evening: in our data, 45% of car conversations happen before 9am or after 6pm, when most dealerships aren't answering.

What this means: a car lead going quiet after one message is normal. The dealers who win are the ones still in the conversation on day two.

Property managers: renters stay, but they're in a hurry

Renters ghost much less. They need a place by a date, so they keep talking, asking about viewings, move-in dates, pets, and parking. Rental conversations also stretch out: more than 1 in 4 active rental chats run past the first day.

What this means: a quiet renter is often just busy, and the easiest one to bring back.

The deal usually doesn't happen in the first message

Even with an instant reply, a lot of real conversations happen over several days. A buyer asks a question on Monday, disappears, and comes back Wednesday asking to see it.

So replying fast is only the start. The sellers who win are still there when the buyer comes back, and they follow up when the buyer doesn't.

Follow-ups bring buyers back

This is the part most sellers skip, and it's the part that matters most.

A second follow-up still worked (13–23% came back), but less. After that, returns drop off fast.

Think about the car numbers for a second. If a dealer gets 100 messages a week and half go quiet, one follow-up brings about 7 or 8 of them back into the conversation. That's 7 or 8 extra buyers a week who were otherwise gone.

How long should I wait before following up?

A day or two.

In our data, follow-ups sent 1 to 3 days after the last reply got the best response: about 26% of buyers came back. Follow-ups sent after more than 3 days barely worked at all: about 5%.

Too soon and you look pushy. Too late and they've already bought something else.

Don't follow up on everyone

Here's the catch. Follow up on every single conversation and you'll look like spam, to the buyer and to Facebook. Sending the same message to lots of people is exactly what Facebook's spam filters watch for.

Not every quiet buyer deserves a follow-up:

• they already said "no thanks" or "I found one"
• the item is sold or the rental is taken
• they asked something you already answered, and the next step is theirs

A good follow-up goes to the right buyers, with something specific. Not "just checking in!" but "The Civic is still here. Want to come see it Saturday morning?" or "Viewings for the 2-bed are Thursday 5–7pm, want a spot?"

How GetReplyNow handles this for you

Doing all of this by hand (replying within a minute at 11pm, remembering who went quiet two days ago, deciding who's worth chasing) is where most sellers fall behind. That's what GetReplyNow does automatically:

1. Replies to every buyer within about a minute, day or night, using your listing details and your rules.
2. Notices when a buyer goes quiet and waits the right amount of time.
3. Reads the whole conversation and decides if a follow-up is worth it. Our AI scores each quiet conversation and skips the ones that aren't worth chasing. In our data it holds back more than half of possible follow-ups, so your account doesn't look like spam.
4. Writes a follow-up that fits that buyer. It's written for that conversation, not copied from a template, and it stops as soon as the buyer replies.

You keep the buyers who were always going to answer, and you get back up to 1 in 3 of the ones who weren't.

Try GetReplyNow free →

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Data: Facebook Marketplace conversations handled by GetReplyNow. "Is this still available" openers and reply speed are from 10,000+ buyer conversations over 90 days. Industry rates, follow-up results, and timing are from nearly 3,000 conversations in the last 30 days. Percentages are rounded.