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Posted by Pam on March 31st, 2008 in real estate advice

Last week, the New York Times wrote an article on home exchanges. That’s the popular practice of swapping, let’s say your home in Paris, for some other house in some destination you’d like to visit. In fact, home exchanges have been a popular way for years for international vacationers to sample life around the world. For example, at HomeExchange.com, you pay a membership fee of $100 a year for the chance to connect with others in some place you might like to visit. Other similar services, like Digsville.com charge only about $45 a year for membership. Some services, like Sabbaticalhomes.com , ($35 for academics, $55 for non-academics) focus on particular populations looking to exchange homes — such as visiting professors and researchers. Those who don’t want to join an exchange “club” can find plenty of people willing to exchange their homes in far-flung places on Craigslist and other message boards. (Of course, there is greater risk in doing it on your own, as you will not have the benefit of the reference checks that many clubs conduct.) 

For foreigners with second homes in Boston, home exchanges represent a unique and valuable opportunity. In the months that you do not intend to stay in your Boston home, for example, you can host a family from Amsterdam, Sao Paolo or San Franciso. You can then visit any of these three destinations for a vacation or even for work. You get to travel without having to worry about hotel bills and without feeling like a tourist. Coordination of exchange dates also becomes much easier because you are exchanging a home where you spend only part of the year, rather than the entire year.  It’s a great way to keep your home occupied (and thus less of a target for thieves) and indirectly, it can help pay the cost of the second home with savings on travel bills. You can exchange both your Boston home or your primary residence wherever it may be, expanding your vacation options even further. Some people who don’t want to exchange successfully rent out their second homes for certain periods of time. In Boston, because of the large number of universities, it is usually quite easy to find temporary renters for a few weeks or a few months of the year. (Note, however that you’ve got to pay taxes on any income from renting out your home, while home exchanges carry no tax consequences.)

We’ll be posting more on how to successfully exchange your home, but in the meantime, check out these sites for more information on home exchanges:

HomeLink International
Independenttraveler.com
Exchangehomesblog.com
Homeexchangerblogspot.com
Homeexchangetravel.blogs.com