Vacation Home Swaps - Are They Right For You?
Jeb Maxwell
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Article Title:
Vacation Home Swaps - Are They Right For You?
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Article Description:
Home swaps or home exchanges are a different kind of vacation
experience. Generally, it simply requires finding a home owner
who lives in the place you would like to visit and having them
desire to visit your hometown, and then the two of you can agree
to specific terms of exchange, to swap homes for a specific time
frame. Read this article to learn more about this low-cost travel
and vacation opportunity.
Additional Article Information:
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1070 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line
Distribution Date and Time: 2010-02-17 10:00:00
Written By: Jeb Maxwell
Copyright: 2008-2010
Contact Email: mailto:jeb.m...@thephantomwriters.com
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Vacation Home Swaps - Are They Right For You?
Copyright (c) 2008-2010 Jeb Maxwell
Find Vacation Rentals
http://www.findvacationrentals.com/
Many people have discovered the option of the vacation rental of
homes or condos as an interesting alternative to the conventional
idea of renting a room or suite at a hotel, motel or resort. When
you opt for a vacation rental, you frequently get more space than
what you would by renting a room, more privacy, and to "make the
space your own" for a brief time.
One variation on this theme was the basis of the recent movie,
"The Holiday", staring Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet. Cameron
is a "full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes" producer of
blockbuster film trailers who just broke up with her boyfriend.
Kate is a shy reporter living in Surrey County, England, who
writes a society column about weddings and finds her boyfriend
got engaged to another girl at the London newspaper where three
worked. Cameron want to get out of LA, Kate wants to go anywhere
at all, so long as it was far from London. The Internet brings
them together and they exchange houses for two weeks.
As with regular vacation rental deals, there are many websites
which list exactly this kind of opportunity. Of course, you have
to have a home to exchange, and no one can promise you will meet
the love of your life while living in the exchange housing, but
it is an really interesting opportunity to do something really
different on your next vacation. Sometimes people also exchange
cars as part of the deal.
Depending on where you shop for home exchanges for your next
vacation, you can find swaps available in most any location
around the world - one home exchange website has homes listed
from as many as 75 countries. Many homes are offered the U.S.,
plus Mexico and the Caribbean. These kinds of exchanges are a bit
different from a vacation rental, because there are normally done
on at "no cost to either party" basis - you get free use of
someone's house in exchange for giving them free use of your own
house. In order to view detailed information about available
homes, you will need to become a member of the home exchange
network and post your house for exchange.
Arranging this kind of vacation swap is a lot tricker than just
renting, because both parties have to want to go to the other
location, at the same time, and for the same duration. And, you
also have to be convinced that you want to live in their house
while they have to want to live in yours.
In the movie, the LA site was a big, lavish, high tech California
home while the Suffolk site was a remote, quaint, old English
cottage. But the situation fit the needs of both parties. So it
must be with you to make an exchange work successfully.
Home exchange services have been available since at least the
early 1950's, so this is not something brought to the world by
the invention of the Internet. Home exchange programs typically
only show potential homes to registered members, who have filled
out the requisite information requested by the home exchange
program. This is done in part to enable the home exchange service
to collect your information and to share it with others, but
frequently, the information is also gathered to protect both
parties from potential damages, brought by irresponsible home
swappers. Detailed home information and pictures also kept only
behind a membership website, in order to prevent criminals from
browsing the home information anonymously.
Some websites also allow the listing of campers, RV's or yachts.
Do you have a yacht in the harbor at Miami, but where you really
want to be is Bora-Bora? You might find a ship's captain
anchored in Bora-Bora who desires to swap boats for a week or
four.
Exchanges of his kind are usually for at least one week, but may
be for longer - maybe a month, maybe a year, whatever both
parties can agree to do. This kind of arrangement really is based
on the principal that both parties are willing to trust the other
with their home, and are willing to take good care of the
other's house and property. There are some good people in this
world, and that's the kind of people that the home exchange
websites are hoping to bring together.
The process of such an arrangement first involves searching
listings until you find a location you are interested in
visiting, where there is another person who is interested in
coming to where your house resides (That is unless you are
working on that RV or yacht option). Next you establish a dialog
with the owner about the exchange. Cameron Diaz was able to
conclude her first home exchange arrangement via the Internet, in
a matter of minutes the night before she boarded a plane for
London. That kind of thing may happen in movies, but you should
expect that it will take a lot longer to arrange your own home
exchange vacation.
A homeowner may have restrictions regarding the use of their
home. Perhaps they allow smoking, perhaps not. They may accept
children or pets, they may not. These are all details that the
parties have to work out with one another. You also need to think
about information your house guest might need in the case of
emergencies (plumber, electrician, etc.) or you might want to
suggest the name of a babysitter if your guests include smaller
size persons in their vacation party.
Other issues you need to consider are the terms of your
homeowners insurance, automobile insurance, yacht insurance,
etc., depending on the scope and nature of the arrangement. You
don't want to find out your insurance became void because you
let someone else live in your house. You should also ask
appropriate questions about the same issues with you living in
the other house, just in case something unforeseen happens.
A house exchange could be a very interesting adventure. You
probably won't meet Cameron Diaz or Kate Winslet, but you might
have a very good time.
Vacation home exchanges are an idea that many people will
consider an excellent option to renting a hotel room in a distant
city, but if the home exchange concept is a little risque for
you, then consider visiting the website shown below, where we
provide listings to vacation home "rentals" around the country
and around the world.
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Jeb Maxwell got involved in vacation rental homes by accident,
when he bought a new house, but was unable to sell his old house.
While facing two house payments, Jeb heard about the vacation
rentals by owner and realized that vacationers would be happy
to rent his home for a week or weekend. Locate vacation rentals,
organized by city and state at: http://www.findvacationrentals.com/
Also see: http://www.findbedandbreakfast.com/
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