ExchangeHomesBlog.com

Since the release of that silly movie “The Holiday”, too many people have labored under the misconception that arranging a home exchange is easy—a piece of cake!

This simply isn’t true. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not putting home exchanging down—just being realistic!

Unless you happen to live in a home that is perfect in every way, and it’s located in a highly sought after location, joining a home exchange club and sending out just one or two inquiry emails is NOT going to represent the total effort required.

First you need to put together an eye-catching, attractive listing including lots of photographs. Listings that don’t contain photographs get passed over—it’s a proven fact. Even worse, some members even view listings without photographs with suspicion, wondering what the member is hiding.

Second you will need to sieve through all the listings and locate everything that could work for you. Flexibility is the key. Without flexibility your chances of locating and setting up a successful exchange are reduced drastically. It’s very difficult to find another member living exactly where you wish to go and who wants to travel to your home town during identical dates.

If you are tied in to specific dates that simply cannot be moved then try to be extra flexible with your location. The United Kingdom is comprised of many more cities than London. The entire UK is served by an excellent road and rail system and because it’s tiny (compared to the US, for example), access to London will never be much more than a couple of hours.

Exactly the same argument applies with Paris, Rome, etc.

You also need to put a lot of effort into your actual contact emails. Just dashing of a line “are you interested in exchanging to xyz?” won’t win you any friends. In fact a fellow home exchange blogger stated categorically that she flat-out ignores each and every email like that. She considers them to be rude and she has no interest in entrusting her home to such people.

Your Admin Area in ExchangeHomes.com allows you to store a “template” email that you can use repeatedly when initiating contacts. The key here is the word “template”. Make the effort to tweak and personalize it appropriately each time. It’s extremely easy to do, just read the member’s listing carefully first and slot in a few pertinent references.

The home exchange code of ethics also requires that you ALWAYS reply, no matter how briefly to every email you receive. Lack of response to emails represents 99% of the complaints we receive from members and often it’s not the result of bad manners.

Here are the most common reasons you may not receive a response to inquiry emails:

• The member has changed their email address and forgotten to update their listing.
• Their email provider has routed the message straight into their spam folder (which they then routinely empty without first checking).
• They are away from home and don’t have regular access to their email.
• They or a member of their family may be ill and checking email has slipped down on their agenda.
• They are overwhelmed with exchange offers.
• The member’s first language isn’t English and they are struggling to understand your email to them

The last point immediately raises another issue. If you are looking for an exchange where the language is different to your own, your offer(s) will put you streets ahead of everyone else’s if you can have your inquiry email translated prior to sending. There are plenty of free translation services on the internet and the result will be far from perfect, but it will show that you are prepared to try. Send both versions of the inquiry email.

The next effort on your part will be required for communicate back and forth between yourself and the members who respond to your inquiries, and the members who initiate inquiries themselves. This stage is crucial. Communicate, communicate and communicate some more. The more communication back and forth, the less chance for any misunderstandings.

Communicate in every way possible: by email, by instant messenger, by phone. Discuss everything that’s important to you (and the people you’re negotiating with) and don’t close any issue until agreement has been reached. Don’t compromise on anything unless you understand and are fully prepared to deal with the resulting consequences.

These communications will quickly eliminate any exchange partners you clearly won’t wish to move further forward with and when you reach the point where you and another member/family are completely happy with everything discussed, always finalize the process with both parties completing and signing a Home Exchange Agreement (sometimes called a contract). Sample Agreements can be downloaded Here.

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