How We Match

What renters complete

To enter the matching system, a renter provides:

• First name, room type, bedrooms, and monthly budget
• City, neighborhood, or a clear “anywhere in my city” answer
• Must-haves, including “No must-haves” when nothing is required
• Monthly income, household size, and move-in timing
• Consent to show the profile to property teams

Voucher status and income stability are optional. A blank optional answer never removes someone from matching.

What can rule out a listing

For a renter’s own daily deck, the true hard filters are budget, neighborhood or area, and room type. Bedrooms are strict only in Exact mode; in the default Flexible mode, a bedroom mismatch is ranked lower rather than automatically excluded.

The checklist shown to property teams is broader than those hard filters. It includes budget, area, and room type, then adds bedrooms, household size, must-haves, move-in timing, voucher fit when applicable, and income fit only when a listing has its own income guideline. Those extra lines help both sides understand the fit; they do not all control whether a listing appears in a renter’s deck.

How results are ordered

After the hard filters, we sort using how many applicable checklist items are a match, without showing a number. The checklist itself is what renters and property teams review. Unknown information is shown honestly instead of treated as a failure.

What “See how they match” means

Every pairing can be opened into a plain checklist. Each line says whether the renter’s answer matches this specific listing, does not match, or does not have enough information yet.

• Budget compared with this listing’s rent
• Neighborhood or city compared with this listing’s location
• Room type and bedroom count compared with this listing’s setup
• Household size compared with this listing’s occupancy limit
• Must-haves compared with this listing’s known features and policies
• Move-in timing, when the listing has a real availability date
• Voucher fit, only when the renter has a voucher and the listing’s voucher status is known
• Income fit, only when this listing has set its own income guideline

The checklist is not a credit screen and does not rank renters by income. Blank or unknown information is shown as unknown rather than treated as a failure.

Income and credit

Income is standard rental-application context. When a listing sets its own income guideline, we show a fit note for that listing; without a guideline, we make no income judgment. Income is self-reported and not verified by housingmatch.

We do not ask renters for a credit score, and credit never affects matching. Many properties are flexible on credit history.

Interest, messages, and reviews

Either side can express interest. Contact information stays locked until both sides match; after that, they message directly in housingmatch. Renters can review a property after a mutual match. Public review summaries appear only after at least two reviews, protecting individual feedback.