# How matching works

A person decides which company contacts you, using a short list of yes-or-no checks. Not a score, and not who pays most. This page lists the checks and says what happens when no company passes them.

## What happens to a request

1. **Automatic checks.** The form is checked for a working-looking email and phone number, a valid ZIP code, and whether the same person asked for the same service in the last 30 days.
2. **A person reviews it.** Someone on our team reads the request and makes sure it is a real job with enough detail to act on. Duplicates, job applications and sales pitches stop here.
3. **Every company is checked against the job.** Each company we work with for that service is tested against the checks below. The person deciding sees every result, including why a company was ruled out.
4. **One company is chosen.** The person picks one company that passed and writes down why. Your request goes to that company, once.
5. **You are told who it is.** We email you the company's name when your request is sent. If no company passed, we email you that instead.

## The checks

**Yes-or-no checks applied to every company**

| Check | A company passes when |
| --- | --- |
| Active | Its account is active and not suspended. |
| Does the service | It has told us it does the service you asked for. |
| Taking on work | It has not paused new requests. |
| Serves the ZIP code | Your ZIP code is in the area it told us it serves. |
| Kind of property | It takes your kind of property, home or business. |
| Size of job | Your job falls inside the limits it set, for example a minimum size or hours it does not work. |
| Jobs it turns down | Your job is not one it has told us it will not take. |
| Room for the work | It has not reached the number of requests it agreed to take this month. |
| Agreement | It has a current agreement with us. |
| Trade licence | For plumbing, electrical, HVAC and roofing, we have checked its licence and it has not expired. |
| Reachable | We have a working contact for it that we have checked. |

Missing information never counts as a yes. If we do not know something a company has a limit on, a person has to look into it before your request goes anywhere.

## What this is not

- **Not a ranking.** Passing the checks means a company does work like yours in your area. It does not mean it is better than others.
- **Not every company in town.** We choose among the companies we work with. Others serve your area too.
- **Not an auction.** What a company pays us plays no part in any check.

## When nobody fits

We email you to say so, and your details are not shared with anyone. The guides and tools on this site stay free to use.

## Need a company for this?

Tell CityPreferred the job and your ZIP code at https://citypreferred.com/request. A person checks the request and one local company that does that kind of work contacts you. Free for you; the company pays CityPreferred. Details: https://citypreferred.com/how-we-are-paid

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Canonical page: https://citypreferred.com/how-we-match

Last reviewed: 2026-09-30

Publisher: CityPreferred (https://citypreferred.com)