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Recently, when checking one of our home exchange “Lifetime Members” listings, I saw that all the dates covered her now past 2008 requirements, so I emailed her to remind her that she needed to update her information in order to keep her listing online. A day or two later Laura phoned me to explain that age and infirmities now make it impossible for her to plan any more vacations away from home.

She reminisced and said that she had first joined ExchangeHomes.comwhen she was 52 years old and her husband had been alive. Together they had taken part in home exchanges all around the world. Her husband had died in 2002 and after a hiatus of a couple of years she had resumed home exchanging in 2005.

This year Laura had exchanged with Mexico, but she had found the flight taxing and subsequently she had undergone knee surgery and recovery has been slow and difficult.

She felt she had no recourse other than to cancel her listing with us, or at least put it on hold.

Our conversation jolted me into thinking: ExchangeHomes.com first began promoting home exchanging back in 1986 and in the intervening years we’ve accumulated an impressive band of Lifetime and renewing members who’ve been with us for 10, 12, 14, 16 plus years just like Laura. It really is a sad thought they many of them may soon find that traveling is no longer a pleasure for them.

Over and over again, the question I’m asked above all others is: suppose I try home exchanging, how do I deal with any damage or breakages that occur in my home during the exchange?

This issue has been covered in great detail on the ExchangeHomes.com website, in earlier posts on this blog, in our Newsletter, and in stored copies of email replies, but I thought a good solution might be to write a new, especially detailed post that I can then refer people to directly. Repeatedly reinventing the wheel with a fresh response to every inquirer wastes an enormous amount of time.

First, I will list the basic, commonsense precautions every home exchanger should adopt to protect their possessions:

• Golden Rule Number One: ALWAYS try to home exchange with people or a family similar to your own. If a retired couple with a houseful of expensive antiques and treasures exchanges with a couple with young children, they are asking for trouble. Even the most well behaved children can be clumsy and awkward and accidents can occur without any naughtiness or misbehavior being a factor.
• Golden Rule Number Two: Set aside an “off-limits” area of your house, ideally a cupboard or closet that locks. Then take a careful tour round your home and take EVERYTHING that is of especial value, either monetary or on a personal level, and lock it away in that closet. To give items a personal value is very simple: if you would be especially upset by their loss or breakage, they need to be locked away.
• Golden Rule Number Three: NEVER embark upon a home exchange without both parties first completing and signing a Home Exchange Agreement or Contract, samples of which can be downloaded from Here. In that Agreement detail very clearly what resolutions are required should any breakages or damage occur.

I’ve been continually involved in the Home Exchange concept since ExchangeHomes.com began back in 1986—that’s 22 years! In all that time I’ve never received a report of malicious damage, theft or vandalism of any kind.

What the inexperienced skeptic doesn’t give consideration to is that fact that home exchanging involves two families, not just their own. While the other family is residing in their home, they are in sole charge of their partner’s home and possessions. This fact alone provides a great incentive to treat the home entrusted to you with immense respect and care.

Look at it this way, home exchanging has been around and steadily gaining in popularity since the 1950’s. After more than half a century, would it really continue to be so popular if it didn’t work? The Internet loves to report negative issues so if there were any disasters they would have been well documented.

Another good suggestion is that people new to home exchanging should try to exchange with members who are experienced. They can then obtain references from previous exchange partners, or maybe earlier partners have taken advantage of our Feedback option where they can leave reports for all to see.

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Several times recently we’ve had visitors to the ExchangeHomes.com home exchange web site who have taken the trouble to add listings of their own, complete with great, detailed descriptions and lots of bright, illustrative photographs, but they’ve stopped short of paying the necessary fee to make the listing go live.

Our policy is to give them a couple of days—maybe they feel they need to spend some more time working on their home exchange listings first—then we email the potential members and gently remind them that until they commit to paying the necessary listing fee, all their efforts are in vain because without activation, their listings will remain hidden from view.

Three of these people have astonished us with their replies. They explained that they have already paid a listing fee to join another club, hence they felt that we should include their properties on our web site free of charge! One person in fact, all but demanded that we release his listing for all to view and went on to detail his opinion that ALL the clubs should join together and publish each others listings.

This attitude amazes me; I’ve heard similar stories from other clubs. ExchangeHomes.com isn’t a charity, we too have bills to pay and a living to make. Maybe the people now expecting free memberships with second and third clubs should have researched their first choice a little more closely before committing to them because each of them cited lack of success as their reason for turning to us.

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Earlier this week I received a phone call from a lady needing advice. She had joined ExchangeHomes.com back in July and sent out more than thirty contact emails trying to set up a home exchange, but, she claimed, immediately the people she was contacting discovered she was a first time home exchanger, they had suddenly come up with a variety of excuses not to exchange.

I was amazed to hear this. We constantly attract new members who have never participated in a home exchange in their lives and although we often never have occasion to discuss their successes with them, a great many are quick to renew after notification that their listings are due to expire and I find it hard to believe that this would be the case had they been ostracized by experienced exchangers during their first year. Furthermore, we clearly publish the fact that we offer a Guarantee—if you don’t arrange an exchange during your first year’s Membership, we will extend your listing for a second year completely free of charge! In an average year we only receive two or three claims against this guarantee.

So I decided to investigate a little further. I checked the web site logs to determine who she had initiated contacts with and emailed a sampling of these members myself. Two were long time members of ExchangeHomes.com so I knew I would receive informed responses from both of them.

I quickly discovered what the problem was. All were up front and admitted that with first time home exchangers they tend to be somewhat more cautious, but the issue was different matter altogether. The lady had worded her home exchange offer listing the exchange party as just her husband and herself—a retired couple. But, once correspondence with likely exchange partners had been established, she had suddenly introduced a number of teenage grandchildren into the mix.

The majority of members she had contacted were also retired folk with small homes (some just small apartments), so it was hardly surprising that they all had balked at the idea of their homes being invaded by four (one said five) rowdy teenagers!

The moral is clear: be honest and up-front from the start. We have a number of members who successfully arrange home exchanges that include their grandchildren, but usually they take one, or possibly two at a time and they explain their intentions openly in their listings. Also, they initiate exchanges where the homes already have teenage occupants, and the home they offer is usually larger and a fair swap.

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While the recent wildfires were raging in Southern California, we received a phone call from a member who was actually participating in a home exchange involving a home located close to the areas being devastated. The family were from the UK and had two young children. With absolutely no experience of this type of natural disaster they had no idea of how to cope, or what procedures to follow. The husband explained that they were caring for their home exchange partners’ two cats—what did they do with them if they were required to evacuate?—and he was also very concerned about an expensive Porsche Cayman parked in the garage for which he had no keys.

He explained that before phoning me, he had tried repeatedly to call their exchange partners in their home in the UK, but had been unable to reach them.

As luck would have it, I was able to put him in touch with my daughter who lives just a few miles away from his exchange home. She has survived many Southern California natural disasters, both wildfires and earthquakes, so she was quickly able to advise and guide him. Good fortune also prevailed inasmuch as the fires did not require our member (or daughter) to evacuate.

Coping with earthquakes has already been covered in an earlier post. Click Here to read.

Again I will stress the importance of leaving clear and concise instructions for your exchange partners in the event of any type of emergency, especially if the care of pets is involved. Similarly, if you own a valuable car—off limits to your home exchange partners—in could be prudent to provide them with means of moving it in a crisis.

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It’s strange how very often we seem to receive batches of emails and phone calls all relating to a similar subject. The current point being raised addresses members who choose to conduct their correspondence outside of the the web site, but completely fail to include any reference to either their own Listing I.D. of the I.D. of the home exchange they are writing about.

The rule of etiquette is simple: when corresponding with anyone directly (not via the ExchangeHomes.com web site) about your exchange offer, always include in your message clear reference to the home you are interested in by Listing I.D. AND the I.D. of the home you are offering in exchange. This will make it instantly clear to the recipient exactly who you are.

Remember, the majority of members, especially if they are proactive, will send out multiple home exchange inquiries, plus they may have more than one home listed. You will make the flow of information so much easier if you always begin with the necessary references.

Of course, members who make a point of conducting all their correspondence via the web site have the job done for them, because every outgoing email is programmed to contain all this information, plus copies of every email sent and received in safely stored in your Admin Area for later reference.

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Home Exchange vacationing has always been lauded as a means of free vacationing or free travel, which technically it isn’t, because families and individuals still have to travel to and from their home exchange destinations. It’s also been all too evident recently that the price of travel has been increasing exponentially.

So—I thought it was about time I shared a method my brother uses, and has passed on to me, where even the traveling can be 100% free as well.

Use a credit card with mileage rewards!

No—I mean REALLY use the credit card for absolutely everything—grocery, gasoline, paying utilities, buying clothes for the kids (and yourself!), medical and dental expenditure—EVERYTHING!

The clincher is that at the end of each month the outstanding balance on the credit card is always paid off in full—NO EXCEPTIONS. Instead of writing checks or using your debit card for various day to day transactions, leave all your cash in the bank and use it to pay your credit card, then the next month begin the entire process all over again.

My brother does exactly the same thing with all his business expenses as well.

Both last year and this, he used his accumulated mileage rewards to take his family (wife and two children) to England on vacation, flying out of San Francisco. All their travel expenses were covered and of course, they exchanged homes. This year the exchange included a car; last year it did not, but he was able to fund a rental car with mileage rewards.

Of course you have to be disciplined and always pay the balance in full every month, but when the routine is established that’s easy enough, after all the necessary money should be sitting in your bank. Another nice touch—deposit your paychecks into a savings account and transfer out just the amount necessary to pay the credit card balance. The fact that it’s not available in your checking account will force you to use the credit card, plus it will earn a little interest for you.

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This morning I received the following from a friend. It has nothing at all to do with home exchanging, but I felt it was worth sharing:

A blind girl hated herself because she was blind.

She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her.

She told her boyfriend, “If I could only see the world, I would marry you.”

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything; including her boyfriend.

He asked her, “Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?”

The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind.

The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her.

She hadn’t expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying “Take good care of your eyes, my dear, before they were yours, they were mine.”

————————————————————————–

This is how the human brain often works when our ’status changes’.

Only a very few remember what life was like before and who was always by their side in the most painful situations.

Life Is a Gift.

Today before you say an unkind word - Think of someone who can’t speak.

Before you complain about the taste of your food - Think of someone who has nothing to eat.

Before you complain about your husband or wife - Think of someone who’s crying out for a companion.

Before you complain about life - Think of someone who went too early to heaven.

Before you argue about your dirty house that someone didn’t clean or sweep - Think of the people who are living in the streets.

Before whining about the distance you drive - Think of someone who must walk the same distance.

And when you are tired and complain about your job - Think of the unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job.

Before you think of pointing the finger or condemning another - Remember that not one of us is without error and we all answer to God.

And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down - Put a smile on your face and thank God you’re alive and still around.

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As has been evident in the past, I normally don’t believe in dragging politics into the home exchange arena.

However, The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund has invited me to use this blog as a means of spreading the truth about Sarah Palin’s awful record on protecting wildlife, and having read about her extensively, I’m happy to oblige.

Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund are getting the word out to voters about Governor Sarah Palin’s barbaric record on killing America’s wildlife, especially her active promotion of the brutal aerial hunting of wolves and bears.

As governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has proposed paying a $150 bounty for the foreleg of each dead wolf. The aerial hunting program she champions has already killed nearly 800 wolves. She’s opposed efforts to save America’s polar bears from extinction. She’s fought against efforts to save some of the world’s most endangered beluga whales.

At nearly every opportunity, Governor Palin has sided with Big Oil, mining companies, wealthy trophy hunters and other entrenched special interests in support of policies that would greatly harm the wild animals we treasure.

Click to watch this video of their new television ad on Governor Palin’s support for aerial hunting and help them run it on television stations starting in Ohio, one of the handful of swing states that will decide the election.

Recently, ExchangeHomes.com was the featured Home Exchange company in a San Francisco Bay Area, ABC-KGO/TV Channel 7 news segment, Michael Finney’s “7 On Your Side”.

The program featured two ExchangeHomes.com members: Member 25493 from Santa Cruz, and their home exchange partners: Member 26013 from Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

The comments of both sets of members was absolutely typical of true “Home Exchangers”, appreciating and taking full advantage of their stays in their exchange partners’ homes.

Do take a look …! To start the video, click the arrow in the center of the screen. Be patient, it may take a short while for the video to load.

This video is the © Copyrighted property of ABC Television.

During the past few weeks I seem to have received more than the usual questions from people interested in Home Exchange, but who are concerned about who pays the phone, utility and heating bills.

The phone bill is easy—everyone pays for their own calls. Having said that, these days a great many people travel with their cell phone(s) and never even use a land line. I made two earlier posts on this very subject and you can click the links below to read them:

•  Home Exchange and Telephones
•  More About Home Exchange and Telephones

As you will see, a great many phone companies offer free or virtually free phone calls, all you have to pay is a flat monthly fee. If you are, or plan to be, a serious home exchanger, I suggest you look into one of these services. We switched from AT&T to Vonage a year ago last May and after a year with the new service I calculated that we have saved in excess of $2,000!

As for the remaining bills: utilities, electric, gas, heating, etc., and of course mortgage, the property owner usually pays these as he / she usually does.

Bill paying responsibilities are something that needs to be agreed and documented in your Home Exchange Agreement. You can download some excellent samples of all the forms and documents you will need by clicking  Here!

If there is likely to be a mis-match of usage (for example a large family setting up a home exchange with a much smaller one) then I suggest the smaller family provides bills showing what they paid at the same time a year ago and following the home exchange, the larger family pays the difference, if it is significant. Again, this is something that needs to be addressed and included in the written agreement.

Personally, I would not go to these extremes. As I see it, by taking part in a home exchange I’m already saving a huge amount of money on either hotel bills, or a vacation rental—even more if we exchange cars—so picking over the utility bills following the event, would, to me seem to be somehow ungracious.

As with the references I made above regarding phones, you can use the link below to an earlier post covering general bill paying.

•  Who Pays What

Just let fair play and common sense prevail.

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I know there are a great many people out there thinking about home exchanging, but never confident enough to actually make the commitment of joining a home exchange organization.

Well, I’m going to make it a whole lot easier for the next 50 members who join, by giving them a copy of Home Exchange Academy. When the author, Athena Ricky wrote this eBook, she was already the veteran of more than forty home exchanges. Home Exchange Academy was first published on the Internet early in 2007, so that figure is most likely even higher.

To be fair, I’m also offering a copy to the next 50 ExchangeHomes.com Members who renew. It doesn’t matter if you still have some time to run with your present home exchange membership, your renewal will be programmed to take effect from your last current day forward.

Looking at our online listings, I know there are a great many that could benefit significantly from Athena’s coaching. A large portion of Home Exchange Academy explains exactly how to set up, word, and illustrate your listing to your best advantage. How to get the most “bang for your buck!”

Finally, I’m also offering a few copies to any of you out there interested in submitting a story about your own home swapping experiences, be they hilarious, amazing, true to life, educational—if it’s something we can use in our newsletter or blog we’re waiting to hear from you.

To email your story to us, please visit This Page on the web site.

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