About Sefer

Why it exists

Most of this already happens, scattered across Facebook groups, Telegram channels, and word of mouth. That works until it doesn't: a post disappears down a feed, nobody can search last month's rooms, and there is no way to tell a real landlord from someone who has done this to four families already.

Sefer puts it in one place, in both languages, where things can be found and where posts are checked before they appear.

English and Amharic are equal

Neither language is a translation of the other. Every part of the site exists in both, and you can search in one and find posts written in the other — searching መኪና finds a car listed in English, and searching for a babysitter finds a post written in Amharic.

This matters because families are mixed. Parents may read Amharic comfortably and English slowly; their children are often the reverse. Both should be able to use the same board.

What Sefer does not do

We never handle money between people on the board. No payments, no deposits, no escrow, no commission on a listing. When you agree on a price, that is between you and the other person, exactly as if you had met at church. The one exception is Sefer Delivery and ቅርጫ: there you pay Sefer by Zelle, and Sefer pays the kitchen, the market and the driver. The Terms say exactly how.

We never show your phone number. Contact happens through messages on Sefer, or a call Sefer connects without either of you seeing the other's number, so you decide when to share it — or whether to.

Apart from Sefer Delivery, we never take custody of anything. On the board Sefer introduces people; it does not deliver, inspect, hold, or guarantee what is sold.

We do not sell position. No business can pay to appear higher in search or above anyone else's post. A funeral notice does not compete with an advertisement.

Every post is checked

Before a post appears, it is read automatically for the things that hurt people here: rental scams asking for a deposit sight-unseen, immigration services promising outcomes nobody can promise, and language that discriminates in housing.

It is not perfect and it is not a substitute for your own judgement. If something feels wrong, it usually is — and there is a Report link on every listing.

Las Vegas first

Sefer starts here because this is where the need was described to us. It is built so other cities can be added without rebuilding anything, but a board with nothing in it helps nobody, so we would rather be useful in one city than empty in ten.

Who is behind it

Sefer is run by one person in Las Vegas, not a company. There are no investors and no advertising. If something is broken, wrong, or missing, saying so is genuinely useful — there is nobody else to notice it.