While doing research on home exchange I was really surprised at how widespread it apparently is. After looking at various listings though I was a bit disappointed at the number of “home exchangers” who were actually simply looking for vacationers that would rent their beach houses and other luxury properties. Anyway, here’s what I found out about home swaps.
1. Home swaps are supposed to be free. While websites might exact a price for you to be able to post listings or even just view them there should be no money exchanged between the vacationers.
2. There are plenty of posers out there. To avoid people who are just trying to reel you into renting their property here’s some things that will warn you about them while scanning listings:
- Exchange period is listed as flexible – It’s flexible because when you contact them they don’t even really live in their house nor are they going on a vacation!
- Exchange destination is listed as anywhere – Just like in the exchange period they have no real plans of going anywhere so they list anywhere to get as much people to contact them for an offer. However, there are some real swappers that do list anywhere as destination. Usually though they have a definite period in mind.
- Price stated – Some have the
gall to list the rental rates. In cases like this
it’s the website’s fault and I get really irritated because the websites obviously only want to profit and do not care about the home swapper’s welfare.
3. It takes a lot of shopping around to find a good home and family to swap with. You might like the location and the terms but they might not agree to what you want. This means that even if a site has tons of listings, if it’s your first time to swap, chances are you will end up visiting several sites before finding a good one.
4. Destinations that are most wanted are Australia, United States and European countries like France, Spain and Switzerland.
5. Most homes are really nice, which is puzzling since the people who swap homes are apparently those that can afford expensive vacations. Go figure.