Room & Care, explained for Washington adult family homes
Medicaid openings list free. Private pay is $199 a month. There are no commissions and no referral fees, which is the part most owners do not realize. Here is the whole thing in plain English, and how to use it without giving away your margin.
The short version
- What it is. A marketplace where families find adult family homes and assisted living that have a real opening right now, and contact the home directly.
- Free for families. No account needed to see listings, prices, or to call you.
- Medicaid openings are free to list. No cost to advertise a Medicaid vacancy.
- Private pay is $199 a month. No contract. Fill the room, cancel, the listing comes down.
- No commissions, no placement fees, ever. This is the real difference. A placement agency typically takes your entire first month of care.
- Best for: a home with a bed open today that needs it filled this month.
Why an empty bed costs more than you think
A private pay room in Washington runs roughly $5,000 to $8,000 a month. That means an empty bed is not a small gap in the budget. It is five to eight thousand dollars that leaves and never comes back, every single month it stays empty. Two empty beds for one quarter is most of a year's profit.
So the only question worth asking about any listing service is simple: does it put a family who is ready to move in front of me faster than word of mouth does, and what does it cost me to find out?
What Room & Care actually costs a provider
This is where owners get confused, and I want to be exact, because I have heard the word "free" used loosely about this platform and that is only half true.
| What you are listing | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A Medicaid opening | Free | Providers create free listings to advertise Medicaid openings. This also reaches Medicaid case managers directly. |
| A private pay opening | $199 per month | Subscription, no contract. When the room is filled you cancel and the listing comes down. |
| Referral or placement fee | $0 | Room & Care does not charge any referral or placement fees. |
Do the math before you dismiss $199. One private pay resident at $6,000 a month means the subscription is about 3% of one month's revenue from that room, and you cancel it as soon as the bed is full. Compare that to a placement agency, where the standard commission equals your entire first month of care. On a $6,000 room that is $6,000 gone, one time, versus $199 for the month it took to fill.
How it works for a family looking for care
A daughter searching for her father does not create an account. She sees real rooms with real prices and real availability, and she contacts you directly. There is no middleman on the call and nobody is steering her toward whoever pays the biggest commission. That is why the listings are limited to homes with an actual opening: the whole promise of the platform is that what you see is available now.
How to list your open beds, step by step
- Create your provider account at roomandcare.com and verify you are a licensed Washington adult family home. Have your DSHS license number handy.
- Add your home. Name, city, license, bed count, and the care you actually provide: memory care, mental health, developmental disabilities, hospice support, ambulatory or not, and languages spoken. Be specific here, because this is what a family filters on.
- Post the room, not the home. List the specific vacancy: private or shared, the monthly rate, and whether it is private pay or Medicaid. Vague listings get skipped.
- Add photos. Bright, real photos of the actual room and the common areas. This is the single biggest thing that decides whether a family calls you or the home listed under you.
- Choose your listing type. Medicaid opening, free. Private pay, $199 a month.
- Answer fast. Families on these platforms are usually in the middle of a hospital discharge. The home that picks up the phone first very often gets the resident.
- Cancel when the bed fills. No contract, so there is no reason to keep paying once you are full.
Where Room & Care fits, and where it does not
I recommend it to owners I talk to, and I want to be straight about what it is and is not.
What it is good at
- Filling a specific bed that is open right now.
- Getting a Medicaid opening in front of case managers without paying anything.
- Keeping your first month's revenue instead of handing it to a placement agency.
What it will not do
- It is not your online presence. Your listing lives on their website, not yours. When a family Googles your home by name after a friend mentions it, a marketplace listing is not what they are looking for.
- You are listed beside your competitors. A family comparing four homes in Kent sees all four on the same screen, sorted by price and photos. That is fine when your photos are good and rough when they are not.
- It stops when you stop paying. The private pay listing comes down when you cancel. Anything you build on rented ground disappears when the rent stops.
What to run alongside it
The homes that stay full do not rely on one channel. Marketplaces like Room & Care fill the bed you have open this month. The rest is what makes families choose you before they ever see a listing:
- A website you own. When a discharge planner or a neighbor says your name, the family Googles it that night. If nothing comes up, you were never really in the running. That website is yours forever and does not stop when a subscription does.
- Your Google Business Profile. Claimed, filled in, with photos and hours, so you appear on Maps when somebody searches "adult family home near me" in your city.
- A free directory listing. We list Washington homes free on Dear Care Home. Families use it at no cost and we never sell anyone's information.
- Reviews. Two or three honest reviews from families you have served will out-convert any amount of advertising.
Listing your beds is the right first move.
It is also a rented one. The moment you cancel the subscription, the listing comes down and you are invisible again. A website with your home’s name on it keeps working whether you are paying anyone or not, and it is the thing a family checks after somebody recommends you.
Common questions
Is Room & Care free for adult family homes?
For Medicaid openings, yes, listings are free. For private pay openings it is a $199 per month subscription with no contract. There are never any referral or placement fees.
Does Room & Care take a commission when I fill a bed?
No. Room & Care does not charge referral or placement fees. That is the main way it differs from a placement agency, where the standard commission equals your entire first month of care.
How is this different from A Place for Mom?
A placement agency is paid by the home when a resident moves in, usually about one month of care, and the family is guided by an advisor. A marketplace lists your room and lets the family contact you directly, so the money stays with you and the conversation is yours.
Can I list a Medicaid bed?
Yes, and it costs nothing. Medicaid listings also put your opening in front of case managers, who place residents regularly.
Do I need a website if I am listed on a marketplace?
They do different jobs. A marketplace reaches families who are actively shopping right now. A website is what a family finds when somebody says your name, which is how most adult family homes actually get filled. If you only do one, most owners should own their own presence first.
How fast do beds fill?
Nobody honest can promise you a timeline, and be careful with anyone who does. What is true is that families using these platforms are usually mid-discharge and moving quickly, so response time matters more than anything else you control.
Serving adult family homes across Washington
We work with licensed adult family homes throughout Snohomish, King, Pierce, Thurston, Spokane, Whatcom, Skagit, Kitsap and Clark counties, including Everett, Lynnwood, Edmonds, Marysville, Mill Creek, Seattle, Bellevue, Kent, Renton, Federal Way, Auburn, SeaTac, Shoreline, Kirkland, Tacoma, Lakewood, Puyallup, Olympia, Lacey, Spokane, Spokane Valley, Bellingham, Blaine, Vancouver and Mount Vernon.