ExchangeHomesBlog.com

The overriding golden rule of home swap vacationing is that as far as the perceived price of the vacation property is concerned, no cash whatsoever changes hands. That’s the fundamental joy of home exchanging - no hotel bills, no rental costs.
Other bills need to be addressed during the discussions leading up to your exchange. Normally […]

In an endeavor to further develop the ExchangeHomes Member and visitor community, we’re going to launch a competition to “kick start”, so to speak, our new ExchangeHomes Forum.
Does anyone have a particularly good home exchange or budget vacation tip? Yes - of course you do!!
So visit our brand new ExchangeHomes Forum and get writing!
Each month […]

Seldom a week passes without some glossy magazine or another calling up trying to sell us exorbitantly priced advertising. They just don’t get it when I patiently (well, almost always) explain to them that home exchange memberships never get sold via glitzy full page spreads. It simply doesn’t happen that way.
Just a few days ago […]

A great many people who home exchange are sports fans. Consequently, if the home you are offering to swap is located within easy reach of any sports venue, make sure you include this information in your listing.
The possibilities are virtually endless. Horse racing fans would love to participate in a home exchange which allowed them […]

An ExchangeHomes.com member has shared some very fundamental, but often not thought of advice for her fellow members. Before agreeing to a home exchange in an area you are not at all familiar with, first make absolutely sure that their climate at the time of year you are considering is something you are quite literally […]

I received this email last week from ExchangeHomes.com members Bill and Bess.

Hi Anne
I’ve just read your post on 27th of May encouraging members to contact home exchange advertisers who’ve listed “Open to Offers” under their exchange destinations and I thought I should share Bill’s and my experiences from last summer.
We live in Oxford and had […]

Yesterday I came across an article someone had posted on the Internet listing every possible home exchange company he could find. Many of the companies he included remain as household names in the home exchange community, but an unprecedented number were names I remembered hearing of over the years, then just as quickly forgetting, and […]

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the pros and cons of agreeing to care for your exchange partner’s pets. I pointed out that while caring for their cats is not generally too much of a tie, dogs are a different proposition. All dogs need to be allowed out to take care of […]

As anyone who has participated in a home exchange will agree, as the exchange date nears you will have devoted a lot of time and energy to getting you home ready for your exchange partner’s arrival. If you’re anything like me the house will have undergone a major “spring cleaning”, the yard/garden combed to remove […]

As I advise members all the time, offering to exchange the family car as part of the home exchange deal is one of the best incentives you can include. Car rentals are currently very expensive - on a recent trip to the UK my husband paid more to rent a car than he did for […]

I’ve just finished reading an article posted on a real estate blog featuring home exchanging as a means of affordable vacationing.
The author listed some good points regarding locating and arranging an exchange, but I believe she placed way too much emphasis upon advising her readers to insist upon references and a formal contract. References probably […]

The majority of our members plan one major home exchange every year or so, and many of them also make multiple “weekend exchanges”. I find that the word “weekend” is generally used fairly loosely to cover anything from two to four days.
Weekend exchanges represent exceptional value. During the 25+ years I lived in Southern California […]