How Homefinder works
Homefinder advertises ready-to-rent homes for around twenty not-for-profit Manchester landlords. You bid for them, the landlord decides who gets them.
We advertise most homes on Homefinder for one week – from early Thursday morning, to 5pm the following Wednesday evening. This is called the ‘bidding period’.
But individual homes can go on at any time.
Homes are marked as either P – meaning ‘Priority’, or ‘1st’ meaning ‘first-come-first-served’.
If a home is marked P, you have until the end of the bidding period to make a bid for it – 5pm on Wednesday. There is no advantage to bidding earlier in the week or trying to submit more than one bid.
But if a homes is marked ‘1st’, it usually goes to the first person who bids for it - so the sooner you bid, the more chance you’ll have.
Find out more about the Priority of homes.
Getting a Homefinder home – your step-by-guide
1. Are you registered for rehousing? Not sure? Find out here
YES: go to 2.
NO: start your registration here.
2. Have you had a letter from a landlord saying they have everything they need and that you can apply for homes? (this may take a couple of weeks after you first register for rehousing)
YES: go to 3.
NO: You can browse all homes on Homefinder, but you won’t be able to bid for any yet. You
may still be waiting because you haven’t sent the
landlord handling your application all the documents they need, or because the landlord
is still confirming the information you sent.
Contact the landlord for
more information.
3. You’re ready to bid for homes, but you must log-in first.
To log in you need:
- your date of birth (or the date of birth of the person who completed the rehousing registration); and
- your rehousing applicant number. This number is on any letter you have had from the landlord handling your rehousing application.
If you have problems logging-in, contact the landlord handling your application
4. Your personal page: ‘My Homefinder’
After logging in, you get to your personal ‘My Homefinder’ page. From here you can get to parts of Homefinder that are customised to your own application. This is the page you come back to when you want to go from one customised part of Homefinder to another.
On this page we ask ‘what do you want to do?’
If you want to see the homes you can go for, and bid for a home, pick: ‘Look for homes, bid for homes’.
5. Are there any homes showing?
YES: go to 6
NO: This means there is nothing available that matches
your household offered by a landlord you want. But we put a fresh batch
of homes on Homefinder early every Thursday morning – and individual homes
can go on any time – so look again!
6. The list of homes you can bid for
The list shows all available properties that are suitable for your household (based on the number of people, their ages and relationships to each other). If a home is in an area you don’t know too well, check out the area guides.
The list shows the type of home: house, flat and so on. If you’re not sure what this means check property types.
Find out more about a property by choosing its ‘Details’ button. Here you’ll see the name of the landlord and more information – whether it’s got a garden, what sort of heating it has, if children are allowed and so on.
The Details page also shows you which set of rehousing rules the home is advertised under. Most landlords use Manchester City Council's rehousing rules for Homefinder homes, but some use their own rules for some homes.
7. Are you interested in the property?
NO: Go back to the list of homes and look for another.
YES: Make sure you really want the home, and are happy to live in that area, before you go any further. You should look at the street or block if you can. You can only have three bids per bidding period (Thursday mornings to Wednesday evenings). If you bid for homes, then later turn them down, your rehousing priority could be reduced. If you really want the home, use the ‘Make Bid’ button to bid for it. There’s no money involved in bidding – it’s just the way you tell the landlord that you are interested in that home.
When you make your bid you’ll go straight to a page called ‘Your bids’.
8. Your bids
Here you can see the bids you have made in the current bidding period, and any you have made in previous bidding periods. You’ll see the ‘status’ of the bid – whether the landlord has not decided who gets the home yet, or if your bid has been unsuccessful for instance.
If you change your mind about a bid in the current bidding period you can still remove it, although you can’t do this with bids in previous bidding periods
9. Bidding for another home
From the ‘Your Bids’ page, pick the ‘ Bid for another home’ button to go back to your list of homes. Then follow step 7 above. If you have made three bids in the bidding period, you can’t bid for any more homes, unless you remove one of your three bids first.
10. Removing a bid
To remove a bid, pick the ‘Remove’ button next to the relevant property. You can add and remove bids until the end of the bidding period (5pm on Wednesadys).
11. When do you find out about bids you have made?
If you have not heard anything within about 10 days of the end of the bidding period (for a Priority ‘P’ home), or within 10 days of bidding (for a First-come-first-served ‘1st’ home), please assume you have not been offered the home this time. See ‘finding out about bids’.
If you need to know more about the progress of your bid, contact the landlord of the home.
12. How does the landlord decide?
If it’s a 'First-come-first-served' property it usually goes to the first bidder. But most properties are Priority (P) homes. This means the landlord uses their own rehousing rules to decide who gets offered the home first.
13. If you are offered a home
The landlord will write to you to offer you the home, and give you a time and date to come and see it before you take it.
14.How do you know who got homes?
You can check the rehousing status of the person who got previously-advertised homes. You don’t need to be logged-in. Go to ‘See who was offered previously-advertised homes'.
15.What’s my rehousing status?
If you haven’t been successful with a bid you can compare your own rehousing status to the status of the successful bidder. (Each landlord gives you a rehousing status based on your circumstances - see landlord's rules.) You need to be logged-in to do this - go to the ‘My Homefinder’ page and pick ‘Check your rehousing status’.
Problems, complaints, questions?
Homefinder works like an agency – advertising homes on behalf of about twenty Manchester landlords. The landlords decide the rules about rehousing priorities and who gets offered their homes. If you have a query about your rehousing application, or a bid for a home, please contact the relevant landlord.
But if your query is about how the Homefinder service itself works, please check our list of complaints, problems and questions.
How to bid for a home
Step-by-step guide to get you going