Home exchange...create a listing that will make your home stand out!

Home exchange offers since last post: 3

Locations: Italy, Copenhagen, Barcelona

If you are ready to take the dive and list your house on a home exchange website

NOW IS THE TIME!!

This is the time of year that people all over the world are starting to cruise home exchange listing websites, searching for the perfect place to spend their summer holiday! From now until mid-spring is when most home exchangers secure their trades for the coming summer. If you are going to get your house noticed you need to get it listed in a way that makes it stand out from the rest and you need to get it listed now! We are already getting inquiries for the summer - more and more will come in over the next four months. As the offers come in, I'll be posting them at the top of each blog post so that you can see the number we receive and the variety of choices we have every year! 

As an aside....and just to entice you into the world of home exchange...as I write this blog post I'm sitting in a lovely, large home in a popular ski resort town in California! The snow is falling, it's quiet, and it didn't cost us a penny. It's a home exchange. The couple we swapped with is in our house with their son and daughter-in-law and their two cute granddaughters. They prepared Christmas dinner in our home with relatives who live in our area and are having a wonderful time according to the email they just sent! We are also having a great time. Sunday we snowshoed, yesterday we skied, today we hiked around a beautiful frozen lake! Tomorrow, who knows?! Do you see why this form of travel is fantastic?? I hope I am convincing you to try it out...you won't be sorry and you'll never want to travel any other way again!

So...what is it that makes an attractive home exchange listing that will get you many views as well as many offers and, ultimately, an unforgettable vacation?  

There are four things to include in your listing

that will make your home the one that will catch the eye of a potential home exchange partner as they peruse the listings. 

1) Your photos

2) The description of your home

3) The description of your area and activities

4) The description of your family / home exchange group

Let's first talk about your photos. They are the #1 most important thing that will make your home and area attractive. 

The most important photo of the lot is the thumbnail. 

Most home exchange websites will have a "cover" photo for your home. Some exchange websites have small thumbnails while others have large thumbnails. This is the one thing that will draw people in to take a closer look. You should choose a photo that shows one of the best, if not the best aspect of your home. Do you have a pool, great kitchen, interesting architectural details? Maybe your home isn't anything to get excited about? Then focus on the things in your home's area that make it attractive. Are you near a beach, a major city, museums, amusement parks? Then feature one of those. There is always something that a potential home exchange partner may be looking for...make sure they find it in your listing! 

To give you an idea, here is the thumbnail I use for my home. It's a great feature of our house and was one of the reasons our exchange partners last summer said they looked further into our listing.

Wouldn't you like to relax here with a glass of wine on a summer evening?

The rest of your photos should fall into five categories:

- Wide exterior shots

- Detail exterior shots

- Wide interior shots

- Detail interior shots

- Shots of area attractions and entertainment

These are the photos that will tell the story of your home and area in pictures. They are important and you need to make sure that they portray an accurate and realistic picture of your home. A potential home exchange partner will want to see the spaces of your home to see if they will physically fit their travel group and include the things that are important to them in an exchange home. 

A few tips on the photos to make sure you include...

* Beds - show them! It is important to show people where they will sleep. For us, seeing the beds in a home is important because our son is 6'3" tall and can't sleep in a toddler bed. Some listings will say they have beds to sleep 4 but then two of them will be beds for small children! Won't work for us...

* The kitchen - some people want to cook and want a kitchen that will suit their needs. 

* Bathrooms - some people want a tub and to others that isn't important. 

* Public spaces - make sure these are clear and defined. If the travel group is large enough they may want more than one space to escape to at the end of the day. If you have a children's playroom or area make sure to feature it!

* Pets - super important! Some folks are very willing and happy to care for a pet. Others will have allergies and, once they see Fluffy, they may simply move on since they don't want to spend their vacation in the ER! Some people just don't want to care for a pet and will move on...

Here is an example of two pictures from my listing that show a wide shot and detail shot of my kitchen.

It shows the space of my kitchen (not large) as well as detail that shows my decorating style and the fact that it is clean!

Last tip...clean your house before you take your photos! I know this seems basic and obvious but I can't tell you how many listings I have seen where the house looks like there was a raging party the night before, the kids and their stuff have taken over the house, or it hasn't been cleaned, ever. NEXT!!

The next most important thing is the description of your home. Keep it concise yet descriptive enough that a potential home exchange partner will keep looking and not get mired down in too much detail. 

Here's the description of our home from our home exchange listing to give you an example.

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"We own a single story home on a quiet street, in a friendly and safe neighborhood in (our town), California, just 10 minutes from some of the best beaches in southern California! 

Our home is casual, comfortable, and equipped with everything you need. We have 3 bedrooms. The master bedroom sleeps 2, the second bedroom sleeps 2, the third bedroom sleeps 1, plus a sleeper sofa in the office sleeps 2). Two full bathrooms. Fully equipped kitchen with Nespresso machine, coffee maker, professional mixer, double convection oven and lots of other cooking/baking toys. Wi-Fi throughout the house, TV with 1000+ channels, streaming tv and movies via Netflix and Amazon, 3 bikes, and great neighbors who will be happy to help you out and answer any questions you have. 

We have a fairly large backyard (by LA standards) with an outdoor dining area, swing, and fire pit for summer nights. Pick fruit from our trees!"

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This, along with the pictures, gives a potential home exchange partner everything they need to know if your home may work for them. 

One thing you'll notice is that I avoid idioms or other expressions that may not be understood by someone from another country. I don't say things like "queen bed" - this would mean diddly-squat to someone from France or England where bed sizes are expressed in centimeter measurements. Instead, I tell how many people each bed sleeps. A term like "wi-fi" on the other hand is a universally understood term that you see everywhere. Think about this as you write your description. 

After someone looks at your photos and reads the description, hopefully you've peaked their interest and they will continue looking at other aspects of your listing. This is where the description of your area and all there is to do in it, becomes important. List everything. This is the longest section of my listing and goes into detail. 

I list as much as I can think of in three sections...

1) Things to do in my immediate community

2) Things to do within a day's drive of my home

3) Things to do away for the weekend.

Some of our exchange partners stay very close to home. They want to go to the beach and eat good food. Others have kids and want to keep them entertained. A few of them take our car (yes, we often exchange cars...more on that in a later posting - you don't have to though!) and go away for the weekend to the desert, the mountains, or other cities in California. Make sure that there is something for everyone in this part of your listing!

Finally, the last piece of making a potential home exchange partner feel comfortable with you is to tell them a little about yourself. Most listing websites have a space specifically for this purpose. If the one you choose doesn't, then find a place to insert it. You can share as much or as little as you like. At the very least you should share your first name, your profession, as well as a bit about your hobbies and interests. Share how many people are in your travel party and their ages. Some listings you will read include a lot of detail but it really isn't necessary. As you communicate via email with those on your home exchange short list, you'll get to know more about them as it's necessary. 

As you prepare to create your listing take some time to read others and use what you like to make yours stand out.

In my next post I'll be talking about 

communication with potential home exchange partners.  

What questions should you ask? 

What should you look for in the listing of someone who has sent you a query?

What details should be discussed so that everything is clearly understood and there are no surprises?

Once an exchange is agreed to how do you work out the details with someone who may be a world away?

All this and more in my next post...stay tuned!

Home Exchange...how do I start??

"Can I really exchange my home? It really isn't anything special."

The answer is resoundingly, "Yes!". Many people think that they have to have a stunning model home in order to exchange homes. Truly, you don't need a perfect house.  Here's a picture of my (Christmasy) family room...it's nice but not luxurious or spectacular in any sense of the word...I have a fairly typical, suburban, American home.

When people look to exchange homes they are looking for several things.
1) A home that will comfortably accommodate the size of their family or travel group. 
2) A location that fits the kind of vacation they are looking for.
3) A place they can retreat to at the end of a long day where they can feel at home and relax.
4) Specific amenities in the home that fit the needs of their group. This may include a swimming pool, proximity to a specific leisure activity, or a really great kitchen if they want to cook. Some people have more requirements than others!

When we first started exchanging in 2007, we had remodeled just a few areas of our 4 bed/2 bath circa 1953 home in a suburb of Los Angeles. One bathroom was done but the other was in original condition. We had done all of the flooring and remodeled the kitchen but the windows and doors were still original. Just be sure to be honest about your home in your listing. The description of your home should be detailed and clear and the photos you post should include anything that is not perfect such as a half-remodeled bath or the fact that one bedroom will be locked and unavailable. Since our home is in southern California we don't have central heat or air conditioning. This is clearly stated on our listing so that those won't be expected! Most everything in the house has since been remodeled or improved but, as with most homes, there are always imperfections that I'm clear about! (I'll write a piece on how to create your listing for maximum impact and disclosure in an upcoming post.)

When you start browsing the listings on one of the many home exchange sites online you'll soon see that there is a huge variety of homes available. You will see everything from small apartments to chateaux, suburban homes to architectural masterpieces on the beach! You can also find unique homes such as houseboats, thatched houses on the African savanna, and homes in the remote reaches of Australia. Some homes are neat and orderly and in others there are clearly small children living in the house and their stuff is everywhere! Some people keep neat kitchens and others are more cluttered. Some houses have lots of character and others are quite plain. Some of the houses we have stayed in have been in perfect condition. Others had elements about them that were less than ideal. Each home is going to be different so you need to decide what is important to you in an exchange home.

Depending on where you home is located, you may or may not end up exchanging with homes that are comparable to yours. Many, many people want to come to southern California and, since our home is close to the beach and quite centrally located for sightseeing, we frequently get the "better" end of the deal. We've exchanged for a ski chalet in Switzerland with views that were beyond anything we expected, a very large home in Thailand with a full-time housekeeper and two swimming pools, a multi-level house outside of Prague with an indoor pool and sauna, and we rattled around a 7 bedroom house in France on the outskirts of Paris complete with a wood-beamed attic that was tricked out as a teenage hangout room with home theater. Other houses have been much more humble but we have never traded "down" into something that wasn't at least as good as our own home. Even if you're not in an extremely desirable location you can still be picky about the kind of home you are willing to exchange with. Maybe it will be smaller but you can still look for properties that are well-appointed and suit your specific needs.

The indoor pool in the house near Prague...a very nice amenity! 

"OK...so I'm ready to give this a try. How do I get started?"

This is where you need to do your homework since there are many exchange listing websites available on the internet. Here is a sampling of just a few of the bigger ones.

HomeExchange.com
LoveHomeSwap.com
3rdHome.com (luxury listings only)
HomeBase-hols.com
HomeLink-usa.org
HomeForExchange.com.

The first thing you need to decide is on which one of these you want to list your home. Some of them have a fee for joining while others are free. Some of them require references while others do not. One actually has to approve your house before they will list it! Some limit the number of pictures you can post while others will let you post as many as you wish. Several have an area to not only post a listing of your house but also to create a detailed profile of who you are so that potential home exchange partners can get a sense of you, your family, and if you might be a good fit for an exchange.

Personally, I have always used HomeExchange.com. They are the largest listing service by far with over 65,000+ listings as of this blog posting. Full disclosure - I did a talk for HomeExchange.com out in LA two years ago and the owner, Ed Kushins, was nice enough to extend my membership until 2018 as thanks for my participation. That aside, I just like how many listings there are on this site and the fact that I get many offers of exchange every year via my listing. It's also well-designed and easy to navigate once you become familiar with it. At first I was listed on 4 different sites but got few offers from the other three. So I let those memberships lapse and have only used this one. Your experience may be different...I'm just sharing what I have found to be true in my own experience.

Take time to look at each one to see which you are most comfortable with. Some of the sites are more intuitive than others when it comes to building your listing. To me, it's important to be able to see clear pictures and descriptions of the listings, have a separate section for a profile of the people I am considering an exchange with, and have the ability to communicate easily with potential exchange partners.

In my next post I'll be discussing how to create your home exchange listing so that you get lots of interest in your home.

Home Exchange...every wondered how to travel this way??

So the winter holidays are here and with the spare time that often comes with them come thoughts of the coming summer and where to go…at least that’s what I do when the frenzy of shopping and relatives is over. Where do I want to go next summer? What part of the world do I want to explore? Do I want a pool? Beach? Mountains? City? That’s when I begin my search…the perfect people to trade houses with. And that’s when I begin to hear from others with the same thought. They are also looking for an ideal location to spend their summer and my location may be just what they are looking for!

If you like to travel you’ve probably heard of home exchange. Swapping homes with people. Trading lives. Stepping into a country as more than just a tourist. Living in a community and getting to understand a place more than you would if you stayed in a hotel. Experiencing a place not just as a visitor but living in a neighborhood, shopping for groceries, interacting with the neighbors, taking out the trash - a more immersive experience to be sure!

The first question I am always asked when people find out I exchange homes is, “Aren’t you worried about your stuff?”. Well, not really. Strangers are living in my home but I’m also living in theirs! It’s a matter of trust. In 13 exchanges over 7 years that trust has never been betrayed or even mildly challenged. Our home is always returned to us in the same condition as we left it, if not sometimes a little better!

As I continue to write, I’ll be covering topics such as how to find an exchange, pets, logistics, communication to avoid surprises, preparing your home, car exchange (or not?!) and how to help your home exchange partner get the most out of their time in your home. If you are wondering anything specific, feel free to ask! I love helping people travel this way and think it’s a piece of the sharing economy that improves understanding and enjoyment of the world on the part of both parties.

I hope you enjoy reading what I share!