House Swappers - Need Your Experience

[jennipurrr]

I contacted a person on craigslist who was looking to swap a stay in their mountain cabin for a stay at my condo at the beach. They want to do it! I'm super excited because DH and I wanted to go to the mountains for our anniversary this year.

The only problem...I've never done this before. How does it typically work? Pitfalls? Experiences to share in home swapping?

[loosechickens]

If you're not doing it through a service, a background check and credit report is usual for both parties. You are, after all, walking off and leaving your home to these people, and they are doing the same. Good information and good personal references are important to both of you.

Nice to have some kind of written agreement covering responsibility for breakage, etc. I'm sure if you do some Googling on home swapping, you'll be able to find a lot of information.

[jennipurrr]

Thanks loosechickens! After more discussion with the other owner, we are planning to do rental agreements and all that good stuff. So now I feel more comfortable. Still crossing my fingers that all goes well.

[setis]

Have a thorough background check done.

[jennipurrr]

Well, in the end it didn't work out :( The owner emailed me recently to say he was moving across the country and wouldn't be able to use our vacation rental, so the swap is off.