Home Exchange University » Home Exchange 101

Home Exchange 101 Lesson 7 – Arrival

John Mensinger — Sat, 22 May 2010 23:02:04 +0000

Most exchangers find their own way to their house exchange. We recommend a more complicated approach: Meeting the exchange family, either at our house, their place, or occasionally at the airport.

This face-to-face meeting builds trust, confidence, and friendship. There’s opportunity to be shown how the TV system works with an expert right there to guide you step by step. This is easier than reading the manual and trying to figure it out. You might get to meet friends or neighbors, eating and drinking with them is easier than calling them up because their name is in the manual as a resource.

Case Study: Netherlands

Our exchange with Jan and Maria of the Netherlands illustrates this process. He was there to pick us up at Schiphol. It feels great to be met at the airport by a respectable guy holding a sign with your name on it. We arrived at his mini-van, he gave me the keys. I benefited from learning to drive in the Netherlands with an experienced teacher. He also found time to instruct my wife in the use of his navigation system.

We arrived at their lovely home and got a complete tour of it. We had time for him to show us the town center, supermarket, wine store, discount shop, and railway station. They had invited neighbors and we shared a convivial dinner under the stars on their patio. Their home was large so we all spent the night there. We went over a list of instructions for our house and gave them the keys to our van with detailed instructions on where it was parked at SFO. The next morning I drove them to Schiphol. As we chatted he mentioned a fact I didn’t know—their town had the second highest per capita income in the country. After dropping them off I managed to get home safely making only one wrong turn. Meeting Jan and Maria was practical, the greater reward is that Jan and I stay in touch by e-mail and have become and remained friends.

The Alternate Approach

Preparation and planning can substitute for the red carpet treatment recommended above. If you are picking up their car you need to have keys and its exact location. Be sure you have a map and directions to their house. Avoid traversing a city during rush hour. Make sure you know what kind of gas the car uses. Have local currency in case you need to pay tolls or buy coffee to stay awake. Be sure you understand how to open the front door. Many European homes have complicated systems that require the handle to be pushed up or down while you are turning the key. Yes, we have heard of more than one exchange family that couldn’t get in their exchange home because of this problem. If the home has a burglar alarm you need the code, location of the keypad, and special password when the monitoring service calls to ask why the alarm is ringing.

Our next lesson will be tips on how to quickly get up to speed on your home away from home.

Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 – Preparing for the Arrival and Welcome

John Mensinger — Mon, 10 May 2010 23:34:16 +0000

Thus far in Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6, we’ve looked at such concepts as organizing your vacation, preparing your home for guests, creating a user’s manual for your home and agreeing to the rules and regulations. Today, we conclude lesson 6 by looking at preparing for the arrival and welcome of your guests.

Meet the Partners

We at Home Exchange University are huge fans of meeting our homeswap partners before the exchange, live and in person. This happens at their home, our house, or occasionally the airport. It’s important to personally know your partners. It’s also helpful for one family gets a complete orientation to their home away from home. Everybody appreciates the chance to ask questions and discuss concerns.

Organizing this meeting requires cooperating on travel arrangements. The family hosting this meeting may have a house large enough to share for one night or they may choose to stay with relatives or at a hotel. We have enjoyed the hospitality of our friends and on several occasions have taken them to the airport the following day.

Things to Remember

Here is a checklist for the arrival and welcome of house exchange guests:

How will they get from the airport to your home? If they are picking up your car they need to know its exact location and have the keys. They need to know how to find your home, even if it is dark.
If you can’t personally welcome your guests to your home perhaps a friend or relative can do the honors.
Keys and doors work in different ways. We have heard several stories of families that could not figure out how to unlock and open the front door of their exchange home. Specific and detailed instructions are advisable and you need to figure out how they get the key. If you have an alarm they need the code. I f you get a new key cut for your guests try it out on the door to make sure it works.
Have each other’s cell phone numbers.
Extra credit for leaving flowers, fruit, or a bottle of champagne to welcome your visitors.

Yes, it is a lot of work to prepare for a house exchange. Fortunately enjoying your homeswap is much easier than getting ready for it. Our next topic in Home Exchange 101? The arrival!

Enjoy this article? Be sure to subscribe to this blog via email or RSS. We have some great stuff coming this summer as we prepare for our own home exchange. Click here and subscribe by entering your name and email on the top left of the page!

John Mensinger is co-founder of HomeExchangeuniversity.com and an experienced home exchanger. His passion is helping others experience the enjoyment (and cost savings!) of home exchange. John can be reached at jm[at]homeexchangeuniversity.com.

image credit

Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 – Agreeing to the Rules and Regulations

John Mensinger — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:53:40 +0000

Thus far in Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6, we’ve looked at such concepts as organizing your vacation, preparing your home for guests, and creating a user’s manual for your home. Today, we’ll delve into negotiating details regarding duties and expectations. Such issues should be clarified and handled during the preparation period.

Reciprocating Favors

Exchange partners often request favors of one another. Here are examples of such favors:

Perhaps you promised your partners use of your health club. Be sure to set this up before they arrive and let your guests know the rules for visiting the club.
Maybe you agreed to find a baby sitter for their children. Let them know the person, contact details and the hourly fee.
You may want your guests to pick up the mail, water the house plants, or feed the pets. Provide instructions. Figure out how these tasks will be completed if they leave your house for a three day excursion.
If you are trading cars agree to mileage or usage limits. Understand insurance coverage and your possible liability while using their vehicle. Have a copy of their driving license and make sure they are covered by your insurance.

How We Do It

Our policy is that we will use the exchange home, make a reasonable amount of telephone calls, leave about the same level of food and household supplies as when we arrived, and freely use their heating and air conditioning. Our children will spend inordinate amounts of time on the Internet. We will eat fresh vegetables and fruit from their garden. We generally don’t plan on reimbursing them for any of this and in return they can enjoy our home in the same way. This plan may not work for you, in which case you need to figure out your own preferred system.

For the end of the exchange we know that we won’t have time to wash and dry all the dirty sheets and towels. We agree that we will leave these dirty items as a welcome home present. We make up the beds with fresh sheets and put out fresh towels. If you are lucky your partners will have a maid who you can pay to restore the home. You will want to know the fee in advance.

Emergency Measures

You need to arrange for friends, family, or others to be available if there is an emergency. This could be the toilet tank breaking, water running down the stairs from an improperly sealed shower, or a dead microwave oven. Yes, our family has experienced all of these minor calamities.

Join us next time as we prepare for your guest’s arrival and welcome.

Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 – Preparing Your “User’s Manual”

John Mensinger — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:39:45 +0000

Home Exchange University recommends creating a “User’s Manual” for your home. The manual prepares your exchange partner for handling emergencies, maintenance issue and anything else that may come up during the exchange. And remember: the more thorough your User’s Manual, the less often your exchange partner needs to contact you during the exchange and the more everyone can enjoy the experience. Our fourth part of Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 look at key elements to include in your User’s Manual:

The (Partial) List

Your User’s Manual should include:

Contact information for emergency services such as Police, Fire, Ambulance, alarm company, and utility providers.
Names, phone numbers, and addresses of your friends or family that will help your guests with problems or questions.
Contact information for your insurance agent, mechanic, doctor, veterinarian, or anybody else that might be useful for your visitors.
Detailed information on how systems work such as the telephone, satellite television, alarm system, or wireless broadband. Access code if they are using their own computer on your network.
Location of gas and water shut off valves. Location of electrical panels.
Location of manuals for the washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, etc.
Advice on local shopping, tourist attractions, and restaurants.
Information on public transportation.
Rules and schedules relating to trash pickup. Location of recycling points.
Local laws or regulations. For example, in certain countries you must have the car’s ownership documents and proof of insurance with you at all times.
Rules relating to your home. For example, we have a swimming pool. It has a motorized cover. For safety reasons this cover must be closed if the pool is not being used.
Warnings of hazards or potential problems. For example we live next to a park with a Disc Golf course. If the players throw their Disc into our garden they will often climb the fence to retrieve it. We advise our guests on making the distinction between criminal intruders and errant sportsmen.
Costs and charges that your guests might have to pay. Normally this is zero but if you had to pay for Internet access by the minute or megabyte, had pay TV, or had an expensive rate for International calls your guests could inadvertently rack up huge costs.

Additional Items to Consider

Besides the User’s Manual be sure to include specific information requested by the incoming family. Perhaps they want advice on local festival or camping opportunities. Maybe they want to ride horses, play golf, or go sailing. Either include this information in your User’s Manual for them or create a supplement with specific details for the particular exchange.

Consider maintaining a box or file with up to date brochures and tourist information on your region. Equip your vehicle with a detailed road atlas, even if it has a GPS system. Your exchange family will appreciate detailed city, bicycling, or hiking maps as well as public transit timetables and maps.

Click here for the next article in this series.

Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 – Preparing Your Home for Your House Exchange Guests

John Mensinger — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:06:52 +0000

In this, our third part of Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6, we’ll look at some critical steps in preparing your home to receive your homeswap partners.

To Each Their Own…

Families vary in their approach to house cleanliness, condition, and order. Standards tend to be higher in families without children, which is one reason we recommend trading with families with similar family structures.

There are also differences on this topic among cultures. Some of our friends exchanged with a Danish family and had the sense that nothing had been done to prepare for their arrival. That reflected the relaxed and casual attitude of the Danes. This was OK for our friends: it meant they could enjoy the home and not have to worry about cleaning it up when they left.

In thirteen exchanges we’ve had only one family express disappointment with the condition of our home. They were from Switzerland, a country renowned for its high standards. We could sympathize with them as their place was immaculately clean and in brand new condition despite being ten years old and housing two younger kids.

Use Home Exchange as a Reason to Clean and Organize

A house exchange is an appropriate time for spring cleaning, repair, and renewal. It is not a time for major construction projects which are rarely finished on schedule. You need to organize everything to be as simple and easy for your guests as possible. Here are some Home Exchange University tips for preparing your home:

The home should be clean and orderly.
Provide fresh towels in the bathrooms and fresh sheets on the beds.
Clean (and hopefully empty) the refrigerator. It’s OK to leave staples such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, etc. We move everything to our second refrigerator/freezer in the garage. Our guests are welcome to use anything in either of our refrigerators.
Put away anything fragile or difficult to use/understand.
Put away anything really valuable in a secure location.
Fix any deferred maintenance items such as a leaky faucet, loose cabinet knob, or broken chair.
Be sure the house is safe for the incoming family. If they have young kids disclose any hazards and put away household chemicals where they won’t find them.
The incoming family should have closet space in their bedrooms, space in the kitchen pantry for food they buy, and a place to put their empty suitcases.
If any basic equipment such as a toaster, cutlery, or cookware is shabby, give it to charity (or to your children living at University). Buy new products to replace them.
If there are items such as bicycles that you know your guests will use, verify that they’re in good operating condition. Extra credit for having accessories such as helmets, locks, spare tubes and a pump.
Secure your computer and back it up before your guests arrive. If you are going to let them use it set up a guest account.
The garden should be looking good. If you have a pool it should get a service and cleaning just before your visitors arrive.
If you are trading the car it should be clean with a full tank of gas. It should have had a recent service and oil change. The user’s manual should be in the glove box.

Extra credit if your garage is organized and clean. We leave it as is and warn our guests that they enter it at their own risk.

So what’s on your home exchange checklist?

Click here for the next article in this series!

Oh, and be sure to subscribe to this blog via email or RSS. We have some great stuff coming this summer as we prepare for our own home exchange. Click here and subscribe by entering your name and email on the top left of the page!

Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 – Organizing Your Vacation to Maximize Enjoyment

John Mensinger & Deren Monday — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:08:15 +0000

In this, our second part of Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6, we’ll look at a few ways to organize your trip to get the most out of it. But first, enjoy one of our typical slightly-off-mark-but-mostly-true analogies:

Party Like a Rock Star

Let’s say you want a party. You want a great party. You want people to get to know each other, experience a great setting, set records for most attendees per square foot and maybe end the night in a crazy drunken stupor.

You have two options for creating this party:

Option 1 is to casually mention the part to a few people, maybe prepare some food and buy some drinks, and then sit on your front porch and just kinda see who pops in.

Option 2 is to charter a jet to the Cayman Islands, invite everyone you know, pay their expenses, fly in U2 and Elton John and Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga for a concert and provide a week of the best food, fun and drink you can imagine.

Now option 2 would require quite a bit of planning (and a ton of money.) But, which option do you think would produce the best party?

Why You Want to Prepare for Your Exchange

Planning your exchange is similar. The more time you put into planning for and learning about your destination, the better your chance of having a rockin’ good time.

We here at Home Exchange University enjoy the anticipation and planning for a trip as much as the actual vacation. Here are some tips for preparing for your next home exchange. Have additional tips from your past house exchanges? Leave them in the comments below:

Using guidebooks and the Internet, learn as much as possible about the country and region you will visit.
Come up with a list of thirty must see attractions for every trip. We’ll be impressed if you visit even half of them.
Research special events and performances taking place during your trip, like, say, Rolling with the Queen.
Read topical books. John read a history of Scandinavia before visiting Denmark. This allowed a better appreciation of his surroundings. The book was equally helpful for two visits to Stockholm. If you’re visiting France we highly recommend Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the FrenchSixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French. You will have an improved understanding of the country, its culture, and its institutions.
You may want to study the language before visiting a country. Yes, John has cassette courses in Danish and Swedish, and no, he can’t say more than a few words in either language.

Speaking of few words, if family conversation around the dinner table lags, it’s just the moment to discuss your upcoming vacation and the wonders and history of your vacation destination.

Click here to go to Part 3 of Lesson 6: Preparing Your Home for Your House Exchange Guests!

Deren S. Monday is co-founder of HomeExchangeUniversity.com and father of two. He is also a remodeling coach teaching others how to make their homes exchange-worthy. Deren can be reached at dsm_at_homeexchangeuniversity_dot_com.

Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 – Preparing for Your Home Exchange

Deren Monday — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:21:26 +0000

Do me a favor.

Go and find a blindfold.

You heard me. Go and get an old scarf, or a strip of cloth or something else that you can tie around your head for complete blindness.

Got it? Good.

Now go and find some liquor. Something with good kick, like scotch, or whiskey, or Goldschlager…

Now take a few shots. You heard me. Go ahead. I’ll wait…

Good. Now spin around, secure the blindfold, and try to conduct your normal daily household routine.

How did you do? Oh, not so good? I’m so surprised!

Remember, when you enter a homeswap, your partner is entering a foreign territory (your home) as will you (their home). Your job, being the good home exchange partner that you are, is to ensure even a blindfolded, drunken, dizzy exchange partner could function in your home. Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 is all about preparing you, your home and your home exchange partner for the exchange.

This is a dense lesson, so we will break it into multiple posts. Here are the sub-topics of this lesson:

Click here for the next section of this lesson!

PS: To be notified via email when the new posts arrive, simply click here and enter your email address in the box on the top left corner. Come on, everyone is doing it. It’s the cool things to do…

Home Exchange 101 Lesson 5 – Getting to Yes

John Mensinger & Deren Monday — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:33:53 +0000

A fascinating way to get to know someone is learn how they proposed, or plan to propose, marriage. A persons’ proposal strategy reveals their personality.

Some of us love to show off, so we proposed in large groups. Others of us are low-key and measured, so a small, private, intimate proposal is exactly what we are looking for.

And yet others of us are self-conscious, so we propose high in the sky, on a cliff, or a tall building, or a bridge. This way, should our proposal be declined, one nudge turns the newspaper headline from Man Proposes to Woman to Tragedy Strikes Right After Man Proposes to Woman…

No matter your proposal strategy, four elements determine how successful your proposal will be:

Your relationship with the other person
The setting
The fine details
And the freedom to decline

And the same elements determine how successful you will be in landing your desired home exchange.

To recap Home Exchange 101, we’ve created our home exchange listing, searched home exchange agencies for viable exchange partners, and initiated contact with one promising partner at a time. Now the fun begins as you get into the details of the exchange, convince your potential partner that they want to exchange with you and decide for yourself if this exchange is right for you.

Your Relationship with Your Potential Partner

A marriage proposal is much more likely to be accepted if you know the other person well. As heartwarming as a Las Vegas wedding with a stripper sounds, it might not last. And it will really irk your existing spouse. In the same vein, your first priority in negotiating an exchange is establishing trust and confidence between the two families.

You will likely negotiate with either the husband or wife in a family. Get to know them you as you would any new friend. Talk about sports, pets, politics, or any shared interest. Some view home exchange as simply a formal transaction. We think this robs you of a deeper exchange experience; an experience resulting in new friendship. We deem an exchange successful only if both parties end the exchange on fantastic terms and in friendship.

E-mail is a great way to build your relationship and also track the history of your negotiation. Additionally, since many exchanges occur between families of differing native languages, e-mail is a more comfortable medium for many to use. E-mails can be composed at your own pace and without the pressure (and awkwardness) of a live conversation.

As soon as possible, transmit a detailed document with information about your home, its contents, its location, and your family. Include previous home exchange partners that they can contact for a reference. Prove you are careful and experienced home exchangers or, if not, that you are detailed and attentive to their needs.

Respond quickly and fully to any questions or requests your potential partner sends. Prompt response proves reliability and a willingness to work hard to make sure they have a good experience in your home. During your negotiations be sure to inform your potential partner if you will be unavailable for any significant period of time. Otherwise, they may infer you lost interest.

The Importance of the Right Location

A marriage proposal under a waterfall, in the dusk of a sultry Caribbean evening will likely be accepted.

A marriage proposal at the intermission of a monster-truck rally will likely be denied.

Location is important in a proposal, and it’s important as you negotiate your exchange. Be sure the home you’re considering, its amenities, and its location work for your family. Review their listing information carefully. Ask for additional photos or information if needed.

Use the Internet to research their neighborhood, town/city, and region. If you’re unfamiliar with their country and culture go to the library or bookstore and find a good travel guide or relevant book. For an exchange near Amsterdam we read Culture Shock! Netherlands, which helped us understand the country and its citizens.

Ask questions. Details matter. If you love cycling on vacation the other family may have bicycles. Are they good quality? Are they the right size to fit your family? Are they in good condition?

Be sure you are really getting what you want from the exchange. For example, we love France because it’s not California. We once began negotiations with a promising French family and learned they had an American style home in an American style subdivision near the freeway. It was not possible to walk to the center of their attractive ancient town. When this became clear we politely declined.

In contrast, a British family had a 200 year old stone home with a stream in the garden. According to the map they were next to a sewage works, railway, and highway. On a more positive note there were hills, forests, trails, and a river. We were worried about noise and odor. They explained that they never noticed the sewage plant and that the highway was far enough away not to be noticed. The railway had a few local trains a day. Everything they said was true and the setting was lovely. We had a relaxing vacation there.

The Fine Details

Some of the best marriage proposal stories we have heard involve a small yet significant detail of the event.

Perhaps the ring given is a family heirloom dating back to 15,400 BC and made from real mammoth tusk. Or perhaps you trained African swallows to form “Will You Marry Me” in an aerial extravaganza against backdrop of white, fluffy clouds…

In the same way, the details of your exchange are critical, and now is the time to discuss each of them with your potential partner.

A home exchange advantage is having local experts (your exchange partners) to help plan your vacation. Let’s say you love cycling. Your home exchange partners might go to friends or relatives to borrow bicycles for your family. They may procure cycling maps and information.

Another home exchange advantage is meeting the friends and family of your exchange partners. Last summer in Switzerland friends of our partners gave us lunch at their summer camp and had us over to dinner. One year a French family wanted camping equipment. We agreed to supply what they needed as part of the exchange. Our Swedish friend Peter bought a Harley Davidson motorcycle in Florida and shipped it to our business to use it while on exchange in California. The neighbors always knew when he was coming or going.

Be sure by the end of this phase you agree on terms and conditions like automobile use. The car is important; each family needs to understand details of insurance coverage. You might want to agree on a mileage limit if trading cars.

It isn’t necessary to negotiate everything before making an agreement, but if something is important it is better to have it understood and resolved before you say yes to the exchange.

The Freedom to Decline

The best thing about a marriage proposal? Acceptance is a decision. Don’t want to marry the jerk, then you can say no. And then slap him. And then walk away as you key his new car. Just sayin’…

Home Exchange is also a choice (a great choice when done right). At some point in the negotiation, one partner or the other will come to a conclusion. If it isn’t going to work be up front about it and let your potential exchange partner know as soon as possible. You don’t want the other family to miss out on other exchanges. A more common problem is that one family is ready to agree to the exchange and the other isn’t. In such cases the unconvinced family should figure out what information is needed so they can make a decision in a timely manner.

Once you have agreed you are committed and can begin detailed vacation planning with confidence. If you are buying expensive non-refundable airline tickets let your partners know before you make the final decision. Get their ok in advance. This lets them know you are committed and if there is a potential problem they can let you know.

Join us next time for Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 – Preparing for your Home Exchange!

Image Credit – www.flickr.com/photos/steveluscher/

Home Exchange 101 Lesson 4 – First Contact

John Mensinger & Deren Monday — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:03:41 +0000

If you ever wonder if the world is coming to an end, then just look at your Christmas cards once the holiday season ends. It leaves no doubt we are in the end of days.

Why? Because the evil Walgreen’s/Rite Aid/CVS trifecta has us believing a Christmas card is a picture collage of our family in silly Christmas poses with some cliche “Seasons Greetings!” or “Happy Holidays!” No more cards sans photos. No more hand-written notes. No more hand-made delicacies. Nope. Nada. All we’re left with is over-glossed visual noise, void of personality and the spirit of Christmas.

Which brings us to home exchange: first contact. You have two options:

The Shotgun Approach (Full-Gloss)

What we call the “Shotgun Method” is most popular, sadly. A homeswap family considers a large number of listings and saves them within their home exchange agency profile. They then click on a certain number, say up to twenty, and then send an identical e-mail. Here is one recently received:

Hello

We are looking to exchange in California in July/August 2010 and your house looks wonderful.

We live in an 80 year old House in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Britain. We are a 50 minute train ride to London and within an hour of other attractions in Southern England such as Stonehenge. Please let us know if you would like to discuss further.

Best regards

Winston

Boom! Did you hear it. Yup. That was a shotgun going off. And the email was as personal as the one I get from my credit card telling my how they are screwing me next.

The Touchy-Feely-Make-Me-Want-to-Exchange-with-You Method

Let’s look at a different option. Let’s see what a similar message would look like with just a bit of effort thrown in:

Hello John and Julia,

We are looking to exchange in California in July/August 2010. Your view is beautiful and we love your pool. We live in an 80 year old House in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Britain. We are a 50 minute train ride to London and within an hour of other attractions in Southern England such as Stonehenge. Please let us know if you would like to discuss further.

Best regards

Winston

Ahhh, much better. Not too much. Not over the top. But at least I feel like you care who I am. I want to trade with someone who cares who I am. We are potentially staying in each others home!

Yes, you may have sent out 19 virtually identical inquiries but they don’t know that. This e-mail should receive more consideration than the generic version.

What to do if You’re Solicited (In a Good Way)

Let’s assume you receive an inquiry like the one above. You should review the listing, read the information and look at their photos. You will have one of the following reactions:

You aren’t interested. The home, family, location, or dates aren’t what you’re looking for. You should politely respond, thanking them and explaining that you’re unable to exchange with them. If you want you can give a specific reason but it isn’t required.
You may be interested. You should respond with an e-mail, thanking them for contacting you and indicating that you would like to consider their home. If you have questions you can ask them. You may need to consult with your family. You probably need to do more research on their home and its location. We send them a detailed file with more information on our home.
This is your dream vacation opportunity. You should immediately respond with great interest and enthusiasm explaining why you are so delighted with their offer. They may have sent this note out to 19 other home exchange families that may find it appealing. After reviewing their listing you will have an idea of their family likes and preferences. You can use these to try to convince them to trade with you. For example we told a British family that we could help them with their passion for tennis. We sealed the deal with them by arranging a temporary membership in our tennis club.

Initial Research

There are many ways to research possible home exchange locations. We like to look at detailed maps and satellite photos to get a better idea of the neighborhood. For Britain we recommend www.streetmap.co.uk, for Europe www.viamichelin.com has maps and tourist information. For the US, www.zillow.com has real estate valuations, maps, and satellite photos. You may prefer www.googlemaps.com.

Once we had an inquiry from a seaside town in Scotland with a famous golf course. The home had an ocean view. It looked good but the map research showed a rail line running near to the house. We asked them if they had problems with noise or vibration and if it was a main line. They responded that they had gotten used to it and it was a main line. The Internet told us that over twenty trains would pass by between 6am and midnight. We politely declined.

You can also use the Internet to learn about their region and its attractions. Most folks have never heard of the South Shropshire Hills in England. It is a picturesque mixture of fields, hills, and forest punctuated with ancient towns and villages. This became clear once we started researching the region on the Internet. We had a happy three weeks there and would be delighted to return for another stay.

This is How We Do It

We don’t use the Shotgun Method ourselves. We dislike having to seriously consider more than one home exchange possibility at a time. We wish to avoid making friends with another family and having to tell them that we can’t exchange because their place isn’t quite as attractive as our other options.

We review home exchange listings and save those of interest. We review them carefully and research them to make sure they are good candidates. We send out two or three inquiries at a time and wait a few days for a response. About 60% respond quickly, telling you they are not interested or indicating that it might work. If we have no positive responses we send out a few more inquiries. Once there is mutual interest from a potential partner the inquiry turns into a negotiation, which is the topic of our next lesson in Home Exchange 101.

Home Exchange 101 Lesson 3 – Finding Your Ideal Home Exchange

John Mensinger & Deren Monday — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:36:09 +0000

Our last lesson focused on the mechanics of searching for home swaps using www.Homelink.org as an example. Now we turn our attention to finding what you want by using your newly acquired knowledge.

The Basic Method

If you are searching for an exchange in a particular country or region, you could choose browse listings and then click on that country or a region within it. You will get a summary with photos and basic information. You might find you can quickly choose the most interesting possibilities from the photos and information. You click on the photo and get the full listing.

The Advanced Method

Alternatively, you could use the advanced search. With the advanced search you choose a country for your destination and also:

limit the results to those wanting to go to your country
indicate the dates and duration of your exchange
ensure the house is large enough to accommodate your party
indicate if you are looking for exchange partners with or without children
declare if automobile use is required
avoid or embrace smokers

Once entering the above criteria you get a summary list. Unfortunately this summary does not contain photos; you have to click on the listings, which are sorted by country and/or city or region. If you have a basic understanding of a country you can first look at listings in those parts of the country that interest you.

Hot Pants Hot Lists

Homelink.org has a great feature called hot lists, which collate members indicating they are looking actively for an exchange. You may choose the 7 day, 14 day, or 30 day hot list, which is the elapsed time since the member indicated they were looking.

Homelink.org allows you to save a listing and make comments on it. You can save several listings and examine them over days or weeks as you wish.

Real World Example

You and your family should carefully consider what you are looking for in an exchange home. Here is my family’s list. The percentage indicates our success rate in getting that criteria:

Location

Country where we speak the language or where English is widely spoken (100%)
Region with enough tourist attractions to keep us busy (85%)
We like discovering new regions (70%)
Scenic or beautiful countryside (85%)
Activities of interest to the children (65%)
Pleasant and tranquil as opposed to noisy (100%)
If near big city, good public transport links (100%)
Congenial to bicycling (100%)
Not too hot during the summer (85%)

The above list explains why we have traded twice in Stockholm, three times in France, and five times in rural England and Wales. Three of the British exchanges were in National Parks. The other two were in officially designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). 70% of our locations have been excellent; the remaining 30% were good.

The Home

Comfortable, casual, modern, kid friendly (85%)
A bedroom for each child (85%)
Master bedroom, hopefully with attached bathroom (45%)
Pleasant garden with table to eat outside sheltered from sun or rain (85%)
Exceptional views from the house or garden (57%)
Car, newer or larger instead of smaller or older (60%)
Good quality well maintained bicycles of the right size with helmets, locks, and pumps (80%)

The above bicycle figure is high because in France and England I have my own bicycles available. Otherwise it would be more like 45%. We would rate 78% of our exchange homes as excellent. 22% had minor problems but were still good.

The Family

Friendly, trustworthy, patient, understanding (93%)
Two or more children in their home (100%)
Spoke English (100%)
Upper middle class (100%)
Highly educated (100%)

Most home exchange participants are outstanding. We have seen 43% of them since our exchange was completed. I consider 30% to be close friends. We remain in touch with 78% of them. 100% of these families had neat and clean homes and left our place the same way. 100% did anything we asked and often more to make our exchange a success.

You can use your checklist to get an idea of the home exchange opportunities that appeal. The information and the photos of the listing should give you a good idea if it will meet your needs. If you are unsure, you can do further research. That’s a future topic in Home Exchange 101.

Click here to go to Home Exchange 101 Lesson 4: First Contact.