{"id":41251,"date":"2023-06-05T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=41251"},"modified":"2023-05-30T14:03:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T21:03:35","slug":"home-exchanges-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/home-exchanges-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Exchanges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Once a week we\u2019ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, but the possibilities they inspire are new.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Resources for home swapping<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Home Exchanges<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past seven years I\u2019ve had 10 occasions to exchange my home with others. Home exchanges, in my opinion, are the logical extension of the \u201csharing is better than owning\u201d philosophy. I\u2019ve gotten to use 10 neat homes around the world and pay not a penny for the privilege of living there. And 10 counterparts have gotten the same deal in my home. Exchanging houses is indeed \u201cbetter than owning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I live in California\u2019s wine country, 65 miles from San Francisco. I\u2019ve exchanged with families in Seattle; New York City (twice); upstate New York; France (Paris, Avignon, the Loire and the Pyrenees) and so on. I\u2019ve just concluded arrangements for a July exchange in Copenhagen and hope to arrange two more exchanges for 2009. My experiences have been uniformly good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way I analyze it, house exchanges typically save money four ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. House exchange = no hotel or rental cost;
2. Car exchange (common) = no rental car fees;
3. Access to a full kitchen = less need to rely on restaurants;
4. Cellphone exchange = no hassles with establishing a new phone or expensive overseas roaming charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House exchanges reduce the cost of vacations to essentially the transportation cost to get to the destination and admissions fees to museums, parks, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The various services have different strengths. Each claims, one way or another, to be the biggest and the best, but it\u2019s hard to find numbers to corroborate the claims. Arthur Frommer says HomeLink is the largest, followed by Intervac. Homeexchange.com claims 26,000 listings, but it seems thinner to me than either HomeLink or Intervac. Homeforhome has 500 listings in Spain, about 500 in other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intervac and HomeLink work similarly (they began as one in 1953): you pay roughly $95-$120 annually to list your home and its attributes in the database (print catalogs are available, but cost extra). In turn you get to see and search others\u2019 listings. Non-members can typically preview the database or a subset of it, but don\u2019t get exchangers\u2019 contact information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After joining members contact others directly via phone, mail or email. I\u2019m an aggressive marketer: I\u2019ll contact 15-20 members at a time, sometimes more if time is short. The services aren\u2019t brokers, merely information providers. There is no additional fee paid to the service and most typically no money changes hands between exchangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exchange arrangements can be whatever both parties agree to: a simultaneous exchange, or non-simultaneous, even a three-way exchange. I\u2019m doing a non-simultaneous exchange in June, using a North Shore Chicago townhouse while the owners are at their vacation home. They\u2019ll use my home in October when I\u2019ll be on a road trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exchangers typically prepare a book or document that lists important phone numbers, who to contact, what food and wine to eat, what not to use and so on. It\u2019s important to have a local person who can check in your exchangers and act in your stead should a problem come up. All the services have suggestions and guidelines for first-time exchangers. The one at homeexchange.com is both typical and pretty good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously, it\u2019s easiest to exchange if you live in a popular spot and have a beautiful well-furnished home or apartment. But there are all kinds of listings. The important thing, in my opinion, is to pay close attention to the photos and text and try to exchange like-for-like. I don\u2019t try to exchange my home for a French chateau (though I did get a 16th-century farmhouse); and I am no longer enchanted by tiny run-down apartments in out-of-the-way locales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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House-sitting classifieds<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Caretaker Gazette<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve used the Caretaker Gazette to live rent-free for the past three years. A friend told me about this publication, which has been around since 1983, and I\u2019ve used it to find positions living as a caretaker in California and Idaho. In exchange for my accommodations, my duties have included keeping trespassers off the property, taking messages, mowing the lawn, cleaning the pool and generally watching over the home when the owners are away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My subscription includes PDF listings online, weekday e-mail updates and a print version (same as the online PDF) mailed out once every two months. \u2014 Jane Smith<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n