Tips: Home Exchanges

To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.
Freya Stark

What is a home exchange?

Simply put, home exchanges occur when people swap their homes. Home exchanges enable both parties to stay in their counterpart?s home for a pre-arranged time frame, usually for free. Home exchanges are not limited to homes. Most home exchanges also exchange cars. Some exchangers even make arrangements for outside cleaning services and gardening services and airport pickup for each other.

Exchanges do not have to be simultaneous. Many people (especially if they have two or more homes) let home exchangers stay in their vacation home in exchange for permission to stay in the other exchanger?s home at a later date.

Home exchange listing services

Most home exchanges are arranged through listing services which provide detailed information about people who are interested in exchanges. The listings usually feature: 

• Contact info (name, address, phone, e-mail) 
• Location (nearest big city, distance from city, nearby attractions)
• Number of guests the home can accommodate. 
• Home and neighborhood features (appliances, internet and phone access, access to golf clubs, etc) 
• Transportation (will cars be exchanged, how accessible is public transportation).
• Exchange requirements (available dates, places you want to exchange, number of previous exchanges, photos, smoking permitted in house)

Generally it costs somewhere between $35 and $125 a year to belong to these listing services. Most services post their listings on the internet. Some for an additional fee print catalogues as well. The majority of the homes listed by these services are in North America, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand. You may occasionally find some homes in Latin America (particularly Mexico and Brazil), Africa (mostly South Africa) and Asia.

Choosing among the numerous home exchange listing services can be a chore. Many people choose to join several organizations. If you do some research, you will find that there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to all programs. Here is a short summary of some of the advantages and disadvantage of home exchange listing services that I have researched:

• The Big Three: Intervac, Home Link, and HomeExchange.com. Home Link and Intervac both maintain that they are the largest listing services around. They feature many listings outside of the USA (mostly Europe and Australia) and list exchangers both in print catalogues and websites. Membership varies from $49-$125 a year.
• Smaller home exchange listing services: Numerous smaller home exchange listing services exist. Typically, you will get more personal attention from these services than the big three. However, you will have fewer choices. In addition, some exchange services also exist to serve specialized groups. For example, Purple Roofs serves gay and lesbian exchangers and seniors can join the Senior Home Exchange Service.

Safety

As Diane and Joe Stevens, veteran home exchangers note, no one will rob you during an exchange because:

?You are not exchanging with?complete strangers as you have gotten to know them a bit by emails, phone calls, photographs, letters, etc. before the exchange takes place. It would be rather circuitous for a thief to think: ?I know what I?ll do, I?ll join this exchange club for a certain number of dollars per year, then I?ll give these folks I?m going to rob my name, address (after all, one needs the address to know where in heck you are going to exchange) and let them stay in my own house for a week or two or three, then I?ll rob them and when they get back home and find that everything is gone including all the jewelry, the dishes, and the beautiful bib-and-apron set that Aunt Sadie crocheted them....they?ll never expect it was me?. I mean, after all, you are going to be in their house while they are in yours. Theft just isn't going to happen.?

Finding the Right Match for You

Many people worry that their home is not adequate for a home exchange. This should not deter you. Most listing services cover a wide range of possible living arrangements including apartments, condos, and even boats. Some are extremely luxurious. Others are more modest. If your home is ?off the beaten tourist track?, you may need to ?sell? it a little more aggressively than if it were located in a more popular destination. While you need to be honest about your location, you may be able to get people interested in your location by saying things like it is in a ?typical American town? or that your neighbors are extremely friendly. In addition, take a closer look at your hometown, you?ll probably find several tourist attractions that you didn?t know about that will interest potential exchangers in coming to your area.

Want to Know More about Home Exchanges?

There is only one up-to-date book about home exchanges:  The Home Exchange Guide by M.T. Simon and T.T. Baker.  It is a thorough, up-to-date guide if you have already decided that you want to do an exchange and need to know the mechanics of setting up the experience. However, if you want to decide if home exchanges are right for you, I would not recommend this guide. It may scare you away unnecessarily. It tells you all of the potential pitfalls without much information about the advantages of home exchanges. The book desperately cries out for real life stories to illustrate and add life to its otherwise dry text.

Several websites also exist that discuss home exchanges. For an up-to-date list, see my links.

Notes:

• Do you agree or disagree with any of these tips? Do you know any great tips that should be added? If so, send your comments to me (Paul Heller, founder of the Big Blue Marble) and I'll post them on my blog.
  
• Check out the my extensive library of book reviews and links about home and hospitality exchange, volunteer and educational programs, and unique tours abroad.