<p>Wondering if any one here has exchanged homes and how it went. H and I are interested in a 1 month exchange just about anywhere overseas. If you have done this what are your thoughts and what organization did you use? Thanks!</p>
<p>While I don’t have a referral for you, in 2000 my aunt did a home exchange. She has a 4 bedroom flat in Covent Garden (London) and did an exchange for a huge 6 bedroom sprawling vineyard type place in Palos Verdes (Los Angeles suburb), California. That was a 3 week exchange and included cars. This was for a family reunion.</p>
<p>In 2011 she exchanged her flat (again) this time for a huge 8 bedroom (several more grandchildren in the mix) sprawling estate near Sicily (Italy). </p>
<p>Both times were very successful. She has never used an agency, but instead vetted out ads on the internet as well as word of mouth recommendations.</p>
<p>I’m envious of anyone whose home is so well organized and move-in ready that they could offer it for an exchange. It must be nice.</p>
<p>This article has some good tips on the process:</p>
<p>[Home</a> Exchanges Can Help You See the World - WSJ.com](<a href=“Home Exchanges Can Help You See the World - WSJ”>Home Exchanges Can Help You See the World - WSJ)</p>
<p>Thanks! all good information. I will save the article, fendrock.
I have always been too picky to want to stay in someone else’s home or share mine but we think we would like to give it a try in a year or 2.</p>
<p>We did an exchange the summer of 1996 - H is clergy and put it in a denominational magazine. He actually swapped jobs, houses, cars for eight weeks (included 2 weeks vacation). It ended up being a great experience. Hardest part was cleaning out closets at home so they would have places to put things away, since I usually clean the house by stuffing everything away in the closet!</p>
<p>On 3 occasionse, we did one-week exchanges of our 4-BR home near Buffalo and Niagara Falls with young married couples in Manhattan who lived in 1 or 2 BR apartments. Three times we enjoyed the visit, as did the couples. The only bad point was the aftermath of one of the visitors included an unpleasant email exchange that reflected a difference in understanding about housekeeping (they lectured us; apparently after 40 years I didn’t swab down their sink as well as I thought!). It was petty. I didn’t let it spoil my feelings that this is a good thing to attempt. I did conclude that it’s better to work with people who’ve exchanged homes before. </p>
<p>We did a very good job of setting it up, and it took an entire extra day of household work before leaving for vacation, so not easy. Then, leaving their homes, I put in a solid 2 hours of cleaning. So it’s nothing like walking out of a hotel! It takes work at the housekeeping level on both sides of the visit.</p>
<p>We kenneled our dog and took care of a cat, but our dog is too complicated. We didn’t get into giving them access to our car, although they flew in. They rented their own car. Also we stipulated no children under age 4 because childproofing was just too much work. We had children here for a week who were 4 and 6. Evidently their parents knew how to keep them in tow, and there was no damage. It was positive for us. The children left us adorable notes. I’d do it again.</p>
<p>We have our condo on Hilton Head Island listed on an exchange site and have tried to arrange non-simultaneous exchanges for over a year with no luck. We can’t find that magic combination of time, place and willingness to exchange. We’ve received many inquiries, but they’ve all been for exchanges to places we can’t or don’t want to go. In theory it’s a nice idea, but in practice it hasn’t worked out for us. We’ll give it one more year.</p>
<p>We used Craigslist housing swap section, and made reference-checking phone calls. If I were doing it today, I’d try one of the many websites just for this purpose. Craigslist has too many flakes and no feedback system.</p>
<p>We’ve done it more than a dozen times, in Europe and in the US. We’ve made really good friends with some of our exchange partners, others we have never even met. We do a lot of emailing back and forth before the exchange, so you really do get to know the people first. It’s the best vacation ever, especially with kids. We’ve used Homelink dot org but there are other sites. </p>
<p>As far as having the house all organized, actually, it’s a pretty good incentive to finally clean out the garage, give stuff away to goodwill, clean the closets, fix those pesky small broken things. Then you come home to a clean, organized house, your own, all fixed up!</p>
<p>Sometimes we’ve arranged the summer exchange as early as October, but once in a while we didn’t finalize until March–but that would be very late.</p>
<p>It’s absolutely the best vacation possible, IMO. You live like a local, we usually exchange cars also. Now, if we go somewhere and we stay in a hotel, it seems like slumming it, even in a nice hotel. One hotel room is a big disappointment when you’re used to having an entire house/apt and car, with tips on where to eat and shop, and maybe some free tickets or metro passes thrown in. Good luck, you are going to love it.</p>
<p>I’d love to exchange homes for vacation, but we live in a mid sized midwestern city. I doubt if anyone from London or Paris would want to stay here! Do those of you who have exchanged homes, also live in a tourist area or major metro ?
Next best thing for us is a home stay exchange (we host others, and they host us). It is usually not as free to come and go during the day however, and limited if you still have children.</p>
<p>I was a member of a home exchange when it was by catalogue (not yet online), there was a yearly fee, it was published in October, and you needed to reserve your exchange as soon as it was published because all the good residences got snapped up early - at least in the areas I was interested. It was also before VRBO was online. Must have been in the late 90’s early 2000. </p>
<p>It really helps to have a room in your house where you can store items the visitors can’t access - that can be locked away - especially if there will be children staying in your home.</p>