Why "any gender, any age" listings get fewer genuine enquiries

Look at almost any SIL or SDA listing and you'll see the same pattern: bedrooms, bathrooms, and suburb are always filled in carefully. "Who lives here" is usually left blank, or set to the vaguest option available — "any gender, any age." Worth fixing that before more people start looking, and here's why.

Here's the thing "any gender, any age" quietly tells a support coordinator: nobody has actually thought about who this house suits. Which means the coordinator has to do the matching work themselves — ring the provider, ask the same five questions everyone asks, wait for a callback — before they even know if it's worth mentioning to the family they're helping. Faced with a blank field and a filled-in one, most will follow up on the listing that already answers the question.

What to write instead

You don't need a paragraph. Two or three honest lines does more work than an empty field:

Instead of: Gender preference: Any Try: "Currently home to two men in their 30s and 40s — a female housemate would balance the household well, though it's not a hard requirement."

Instead of: leaving "who lives here" blank Try: "One current resident enjoys a quiet routine and loves gardening; the other is more social and often has family visiting on weekends. Works best for someone who's comfortable with a mix of both."

Notice neither of these takes long to write, and neither requires disclosing anything private — just the same practical detail you'd tell a coordinator over the phone anyway. The difference is putting it where they can see it before they call, not after.

Why this matters more than it seems

Every SIL/SDA listing site can show bedrooms, bathrooms, and a suburb. AbleAbode's whole reason for existing is the piece underneath that — who's actually there, and who'd actually fit. A listing that skips it isn't really different from any other property ad, and won't get the benefit of being on a platform built around matching.

The good news: this is a two-minute fix, not a redesign. Open any listing you've published, go to the Residents section, and add what you'd tell someone on the phone. That's genuinely the whole exercise.

If you want a hand with it, just reply to any email from us — happy to help you get it right.

Rod, AbleAbode