Buying a used couch on Facebook Marketplace: bed bugs, scams and getting it home

To check a used couch for bed bugs, take a flashlight and a thin card, pull off every cushion, and look along the seams, piping, zippers and folds, then under the couch at the fabric and the frame. You are looking for small dark spots, rusty stains, tiny pale eggs or shed skins, and live bugs. If you see any of them, leave the couch where it is.

This guide covers that inspection, the scams that show up around couch listings, and how to get a couch home in one piece.

How do you check a used couch for bed bugs?

Look for the physical signs, in the places bed bugs hide. The US Environmental Protection Agency lists the signs as rusty or reddish stains from crushed bugs, dark spots about the size of a printed dot that can bleed into fabric like a marker, eggs and eggshells about 1 mm long and pale yellow skins that young bugs shed, and live bugs. The EPA also says that in an infested room they can be found in the seams of chairs and couches and between cushions, and that a crack that will hold a credit card can hide one.

A couch inspection, in order:

1. Ask the seller if you can take the cushions off. A seller who refuses is a reason to walk away.
2. Shine a flashlight along every seam and the piping on the cushions, including the zipper.
3. Look at the deck under the cushions, especially the corners and where the fabric meets the frame.
4. Run a thin card along the seams and into the gaps between the arms and the deck. Look at what it brings out.
5. Tip the couch back, or ask the seller to, and check the thin fabric on the underside and the wood frame behind it.
6. Check the floor and wall where the couch has been sitting.

Do it at the seller's home, not after the couch is in your vehicle. Bites are not a useful test, because the EPA notes that bed bug bites can look like other insect bites or rashes, and some people do not react at all.

Skip couches from the curb

The University of Kentucky's entomology department advises that discarded beds and couches might be infested and should be left alone. The same page says there is no reason to stop buying secondhand, as long as you look closely for fecal spots and other signs first. A free couch from the curb is not worth the risk. A couch inside a seller's clean home, which you can inspect, is a different case.

If you have already bought it

Vacuum slowly along every seam with a crevice tool, then seal the vacuum bag or contents in a plastic bag and throw it out. The University of Kentucky page notes that bed bugs can survive being vacuumed, which is why the bag matters. If you see live bugs or eggs, call a pest professional. Do not reach for bleach, alcohol or foggers, which the same page warns are ineffective and can be dangerous.

What scams show up around couch listings?

The common couch scams ask for money before you have seen the couch. Watch for these:

• A deposit to hold it, because "lots of people are interested".
• A delivery fee paid up front for a couch that is supposedly local.
• A request to read back a code sent to your phone.
• A new-looking sectional at a price far under similar listings, with photos that look like a store catalogue.
• A seller who wants to move the chat off Facebook straight away.

Inspect first, pay at pickup, and keep messages on Facebook. Our buyer scams guide covers each pattern and what to do if it already happened.

How do you get a couch home from Facebook Marketplace?

Measure before you go. Ask the seller for the width, depth and height of the couch, then measure your vehicle's cargo space and the narrowest door, hallway and stair turn at your end. Depth is often the number that decides whether a couch fits through a door, because you carry it on its side.

What to bring:

• One helper. Do not plan to move a full-size couch alone.
• Moving blankets or old sheets, to protect the fabric and your vehicle.
• Ratchet straps or rope, if anything will be in an open truck bed.
• A screwdriver or a hex key, because many couches have legs that unscrew and some sectionals unclip into pieces.
• A large plastic sheet or mattress bag, so the couch does not touch the inside of your car.

If you do not have a vehicle that fits, price the move into your offer. A van rental or a paid helper can cost more than the difference between two couches. For more on moving big items, see the guide to flipping heavy items.

What to check before you pay

Run through this once the inspection is clean:

• The cushions zip on and off, and the zips work.
• The frame does not creak or twist when you lift one corner.
• No smoke or pet smell close up.
• The fabric or leather is not peeling, torn or worn through on the arms and seat edges.
• The tag is there, if the seller said it is a particular brand.
• It fits through your doors, on paper, before you load it.

If you are buying to resell, set your maximum price before you arrive. A simple rule for flips is to pay no more than 65% of what the couch should resell for. For the rest of the method, see how to negotiate on Facebook Marketplace.

Find a couch with fewer bad listings

Many of the listings you would skip can be ruled out by their words. A search that leaves out "cover", "covers only", "cushions only", "for parts", "wanted" and "ISO" removes a lot of them before you read a single title. Stores are not filtered out automatically, so leave out "financing" and "rent to own" too, or skip their seller pages.

Crawlbench runs that kind of search for you on Facebook Marketplace and checks each listing's price against similar listings. When a price is far under similar listings, it holds the listing back with the reason, and the assistant suggests questions to ask the seller. You message the seller yourself, from your own account. You can try one search free for 24 hours with the Day Pass, no credit card. Crawlbench covers Facebook Marketplace only and is not affiliated with Meta.