At that point I usually give a sigh of resignation. As any realtor will tell you, first and foremost, it’s all about location, location, location. A builder could take the plans for a 3,000 square foot home, build it on an acre lot with rolling lawns, trees and a stream meandering through the property. But—because it’s located rurally, 20 miles outside the nearest town, it may not even be worth $500,000.

Then again, that same builder could take those same plans and build an identical home on just a quarter acre lot in, for example, San Jose or The Hamptons, and suddenly you’re looking at a million dollar’s worth of real estate.

An 800 square foot Thames-side luxury apartment in London would be worth £1,000,000 (not dollars, pounds!). The average New York apartment is probably worth $1,000,000.

Location more than anything else dictates the price of property and I think it’s extremely unfair when the “snob” value becomes involved in a home exchange. Okay, so you may live in a million dollar home in La Joya (California), but why does that eliminate from consideration a member with an exquisitely fitted home with manicured grounds in rural Texas?

I’ve been intending to write this post for a long time, and now at least I shall be able to point future “Million Dollar Exchangers” to my observations.

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