Search tips


Having trouble finding what you're looking for? Follow these tips:

  1. Check your spelling — Make sure your search terms are spelled correctly. Our search engine will attempt to find words that sound similar to your search terms, but it is always best to try to spell the search terms correctly.
  2. Use multiple search terms — Use multiple words when performing your search. The search results will return more refined results from several words than from a single word. For example, typing low income housing tax credit will return more relevant results than typing only tax credit. (Remember, relevant results are returned even if they don't contain all query terms.)
  3. Use similar words — The more similar words you use in a search, the more relevant results you will get back.
  4. Use appropriate capitalization — Capitalize proper nouns. Lowercase words will match any case. For example, typing home mortgage will return all documents containing the words "home mortgage," "Home Mortgage," and "HOME MORTGAGE." However, typing Home Mortgage will give better results if you're trying to find references to VHFA participating lender "Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Inc."
  5. Use quotation marks — Use quotation marks to find words that must appear adjacent to each other, for example, "purchase price limits." Otherwise, the search results will include the word "purchase," "price," and the word "limits," but not necessarily in that order. The words may appear anywhere, and in any order, within the document.
  6. Use plus (+) or minus (-) — Use a plus sign when your search term or phrase must appear in the search results. Use a minus sign to indicate undesirable term(s). The plus sign tells the search engine that a certain word or phrase is required in the search results, and a minus sign indicates that a word or phrase must be absent in the search results. Note: A phrase must be contained within quotation marks. Leave no spaces between the plus or minus sign and the term.

    For example, +"federal low income housing tax credit" -state might be a good way to search for information on federal low income housing tax credit while excluding material about Vermont state housing tax credit.
  7. Use field searches — Field searches allow you to create specific searches for words that appear in a specific part of a document. A field search can be performed on:
    • Body text (body:)
    • Title text (title:)
    • Alt text [text used to describe images] (alt:)
    • Meta description (desc:)
    • Meta key words (keys:)
    • URL (url:)
    The field name should be in lowercase and immediately followed by a colon. There should be no spaces between the colon and the search term. Note: The field searches can only be followed by a word or phrase. Phrases must be contained within quotation marks. For example, a good way to search for a document that has "compliance monitoring" in its title field would be title:"compliance monitoring".
  8. Use wildcards — Wildcard searches can expand the number of matches for a particular request. The * character is used as the wildcard character. For instance, searching for wh* will find the words "what," "why," "when," "whether," and any other word that starts with "wh." Searching for *her* will find the words "here," "whether," "together," "gathering," and any other word that contains "her" anywhere in the word.

    Looking for references to VHFA Director of Multifamily Programs Samuel Falzone? A search of "Sam* Falzone" would return all references to Samuel Falzone as well as Sam Falzone.

    Wildcards may be combined with the standard plus (+) and minus (-) modifiers, quotes for phrases, as well as the field search specifiers. +wh* -se*ch will find all pages that have a word that starts with "wh" and which does not contain a word that starts with "se" and ends with "ch." wh* are will find the phrases "where are," "what are," "why are," etc.