ExchangeHomesBlog.com

It’s an almost daily occurrence for people to either email or phone and say that they cannot locate any member indicating in their listing that they wish to exchange with wherever it is that they are located.

The first question I always ask is, have they checked out the listings stating that they are “Open to Offers”, and usually they have not. In fact, the majority have never even noticed our reminders throughout the web site, explaining the value of this search option.

We have many, many home exchange members who either include “Open to Offers” in their list of exchange destinations, or who list it exclusively. This is especially true of more experienced exchangers who have exhausted their list of must visit destinations and are now quite literally sitting back, waiting to be enticed to somewhere completely new.

Members approaching the owner of a listing indicating that they are Open to Offers need to realize that their email needs to be especially captivating. They have this one critical chance to grab their attention and convince them that their home, their town, their country should be their destination of choice!

In fact I would go further and state that those members (you know who you are), who dash off a one line email - “Hi, saw your listing, would you like to visit Deluth this summer?” are wasting their time.

Carefully prepare an email in your word processor describing your home, your location and all its attributes. List all the reasons why you believe they would have a great home exchange experience. Figuratively speaking “sell” your home and the neighborhood to them.

If you are writing to several likely exchange partners, prepare a detailed “form” email, but spend some extra time personalizing each one to its individual recipient. Mention some points about their home or their locality so that it’s obvious you truly are writing to them as individuals. Then cut and paste each one into the listings email form.

Follow these directions and your likelihood of securing an exchange with Mr., Mrs. or Miss Open to Offers will be greatly enhanced. Good luck!

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