1.   Apply

Hosts: 

• You can apply either online or on our paper form (which we're glad to mail you). Takes ~ 10 minutes 

Guests:

• If you only want to be considered for one of our currently listed rooms/Hosts, just leave a voicemail with the info and statement requested in the green text for that listing on our Available Rooms page.  (If you inquired to a specific listing through Facebook, Craigslist, etc, that same requested info and statement will be in the second big response message we will have sent you).

• To be considered for future rooms/Hosts, you can apply either online or on our paper form (which we're glad to mail you).  Takes ~ 10 minutes.

• • • Here we ask Guests their maximum sustainable monthly rent + utilities.  We would NEVER undermine a Guest by disclosing this number to their potential Hosts.

• • • • • But if a Host offers $350 and a Guest says their max is $300, we will NOT contact that Guest about that room.  Make the best "bid" you can that you're 100% confident about, assuming the room/Host were a pretty good fit.

2.  Interview/Screen

• Hosts: As soon as they apply, we'll interview them at their home. ~ 2 hour time commitment 

• Guests: As soon as we see that their application is a match for a Host (but not before), we'll interview them at a convenient meeting place. ~ 1.5 hour time commitment 

• Always for Guests, sometimes for Hosts: We pay for all background checks, which will require a Social Security Number (or ITIN) and a drivers' license/State ID.

3.  Matchmaking

• We write and run ads for our Hosts (while protecting their privacy), and manage the inquiries to them.

• We contact each potential Host about each vetted Guest candidate. We share a lot of relevant specifics, while protecting the Guest's privacy, too.

• When a Host agrees to meet with a Guest, we introduce them in person at the Host's home.

4.  Draft an Agreement

• We work with our matched Host and Guest to create a "Living Together Agreement" to get on the same page from the very start.  We can tweak it later on, too.

5.  Trial Match (optional)

• The Host and Guest may agree that the Guest first moves in for a rent-free trial match of up to two-weeks, bringing just their "road trip stuff."

• It’s rent-free because the Host may decline the match and ask the Guest to leave with only a day or two's notice.  

• Both sides can also agree to end the trial at any time and make the move-in official.

6.  Support

• Once the match is made and the rental contract with Living Together Agreement are finalized, we're on the hook to support the match over its whole life.

• We check-in with each of the clients after the first two weeks, then monthly, and then every two months for the life of the match (whether by phone/video call and/or in-person).

Other must-know info

• We do NOT help clients discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental disability, veteran status, or citizenship.  As soon as you ask us to do so, we can no longer work with you, so don't.

• • • That's part of why we match folks up based on the specifics of who they are and what they're looking for... so that no one has to be disappointed by vague, misleading labels and categories. 

• • We don't facilitate short-term rentals.  Most of our matches are on a monthly rental contract, but we require that all parties must intend for the match to last for at least one year.

• • Unfortunately, couples and families should be advised that we have never yet managed to match more than one person to one room.

• • If I ask a client for "the secret password," the answer is "brown M&M's."