Intervac members Chuck and Sue Bingaman wrote an excellent story about their experiences home exchanging for their local paper, the Keene Sentinal, based in New Hampshire. Among their tips (which are very good):
- Write a letter to folks in your neighborhood, especially your close neighbors, telling them about your exchange, the names and other information about those who will be living in your house, when they will be there, and where you will be so they will be in a position to greet their “new” neighbors when they are there. In our experiences, our neighbors were more than hospitable to our exchangers and really made their experience in our home quite enjoyable.
- Make a list of personal valuables such as jewelry, silver, china, computers, or other items that you don’t wish your visitors to use. While we have included cars in each of our exchanges, we also garaged our other car, with its trunk containing selected valuables that we elected not to leave in our house, with other family members for the duration of the exchange. We also cleared space in several closets for our exchangers to have space for their clothing and filled the refrigerator with a few days’ worth of staples to carry them over until they could go shopping.
The Bingamans have visited France and England on their home swaps - and made lifelong friends in the process. To read all about their experiences, click here.
