Home Exchange – Why didn’t I do this years ago?
For a good 10 years Blonde has contemplated the idea of doing a home exchange in order to travel more cheaply (financially, she’s already quite cheap morally ) and stay longer in one place (sounds sexual too). But contemplating and actually doing it never got together (home exchange, that is) until meeting Nola of NewTakeTravel at the TBEX bloggers’ conference in Girona, Spain last September.
Nola has done dozens of home exchanges and helped Blonde get her home listed and start the process in a joint post we did in January. Nola said Boston would be an easy location to swap and she was right! It’s as if I’m the hot sexy mess on Match.com and everyone is vying for me to say “yes”! And just like that girl I want to say “yes” to almost everyone!
Hot sexy mess (OK, not really messy but trouble anyway).
In 2 months I have had 24 home exchange offers representing 10 countries. And we aren’t talking the home equivalents of the “large, comfortable in their own bodies ” guys on Match.com who live with their pet hamsters.
“A few extra pounds but comfortable in my own skin. Prefer petite, younger women with money”.
Stuffed a grape in the hamster’s mouth so it couldn’t say what it was thinking “rescue me”!!
I hope none of these happen to be your home but it’s too much fun to not share with you some of the places that have been offered. My first flirtation was brief – a fabulous home in a golfing development in Scottsdale, Arizona. It included its own sunken stadium tennis court and salt water pool with palm trees. Brunette doesn’t get Arizona – hot and no ocean – what’s the point? Blonde is politically incompatible with the gun-toting anti-immigration policies of the state so basically the relationship was over before it began. Kind of like getting a wink from Mitt Romney. A momentary “really, he’s interested in me“? followed immediately by the realization “Oh, but I’m not interested in him“.
What was I drinking, smoking, or taking that I turned this down?
I’m not staying here – it doesn’t have its own winery!
Maybe they were right.
And then that guy on the TV ads for dating sites, the guy with gray hair, a charmingly horny look in his eyes and startlingly successful dental work? He held out his hand and beckoned to me! He said “come away to a fabulous town in the Costa Brava and spend a month wrapped in my modern, yet warm, embrace. Let me whisk you to Andorra and over the border to France. Then we can go to my other home, in Madrid, and you can explore Madrid, Seville, Cordoba. You will want for nothing.”
I made him show me full frontal nudity photographs of every room – just like Nola instructed – so it wouldn’t turn out that the bathroom was an outhouse or the pool a leak from the roof.
And both properties were fabulous! Take a look at these shots of the place in Calella de Palafrugell, Spain.
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- Wait – I have to walk up 3 flights of stairs to stay in “my” penthouse? But I’m American!
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- I don’t know – I kinda want a bar at the pool.
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- Well, I do really like orange a lot.
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- Can I sit out here sipping my coffee and writing blog posts? Oh yes, I can!
Wipe your drool off my pictures!
True, I had no plans to go back to Spain so soon but this was a no-risk way to live as a faux resident in another country for a month. And to live there in style and comfort – for free!
How would I talk Brunette into joining me? She has set plans for every July. But she’ll “come for part of the time”. Stay tuned to see how much that “part” ends up being.
Oh, and that home in Madrid we can also spend time in if we choose? What’s it like? Yes, it has a home theater which is one of our minimum requirements but is it big enough for one or two women? Let’s see:
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- We were hoping for something a tad grander but can probably make do.
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- More orange, I like these people!
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- Wait – are those dead bodies in the pool? Oh well, I”ll fish them out. Nothing’s perfect.
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- Decent garden, I think I have a ceramic frog still out in my patio somewhere – basically the same thing.
What could be better? The owners of the homes in Costa Brava and Madrid (the same people in case that hasn’t been clear) actually live in Dubai now and have invited Blonde and Brunette to have drinks with them in their lux (we assume) expat apartment when we’re there in mid-March!
The mother and daughter will be coming to Boston because the daughter, a beautiful girl with a voice to match, is coming to a summer program at Berklee College of Music in Boston. (I’ve been stalking her on YouTube which is how I know of her vocal and physical beauty.)
She’s too young to live in a dorm on her own. (Brunette sent Blonde to live in a brothel on her own at that age and she turned out, oh never mind, maybe not as good an example as it seemed at first…)
The woman in the couple is American and once lived about 5 blocks from where Blonde now lives so won’t require a lot of orientation information. This is almost creepily full of coincidences isn’t it?
The key exchange ceremony will take place in Dubai and then we will officially be home exchangers in-waiting. (I wonder if we’ll wear promise rings?)
Oh, home exchanging, you have fed my addiction with a better, lower priced drug than the one that got me hooked on travel in the first place!
Let Nola of NewTakeTravel help you too – check out her site and ask questions. She’s Canadian so much more polite than Blonde and won’t steer you wrong.
At least not on purpose.
I have been toying with the idea of a home exchange for a while. Time to investigate more closely. Thanks for the tips!
I think it was the thought of making the place look as neat and clean as possible, taking the pics and writing the description that were enough for me to not do it for years. In reality that isn’t all that time consuming – I think I did it over a week. And then when the offers start to come in it really gets the travel juices flowing! And I really lucked out to find such nice people to deal with – really exciting! Thanks for stopping by!
Great job, Blonde! My pleasure – loved helping you pick a site and get started. Think I’m as excited for you as if I were doing myself! We’ve met the most fabulous people and stayed in some extraordinary homes this way, too. I bet it will be amazing and won’t be your last! (And there’s nothing saying you can’t use the savings for some posh hotel nights – oh nevermind, you win those…)
I hope you aren’t as excited as I am – I’m really getting sick of myself! Your site is so classy I’m not sure I want to link to it anymore! Thanks so much for going above and beyond helping me with this! I refuse to give up hope that you and Paul may come at least for the Madrid portion of the trip.
Oh I’m not a giver up when it comes to hope. I’ll see you there!
I don’t always win them – usually I get them for free with points!
Yes, it’s going to be rough staying in those places but, I’m sure, with a bit of your flair, you’ll be able to make it work
What a great idea. Quite amazed at some of the places people were willing to swap for a 2 bed condo.
No kidding – re the condo part! That’s why I actually listed my home as a 10 bedroom mansion and used pictures of other people’s homes. I don’t think the rules forbade that… And I know you’ll like the fact that they’re even willing to take care of my 20 year old kitty when they’re here. That was the icing on the cake!
Well, who wouldn’t be prepared to take care of a kitty if they get to stay in a 10 bedroom mansion
They’re going to take care of my kitty and mine isn’t a 10 bedroom mansion (although my cat thinks it is)! The woman I’m doing the exchange with is really really nice and they have a cat too so she’s up for the challenge of a demanding feline.
We have a friend who swears by home exchanges. I just cannot imagine someone else living in “my space”. (This comment will probably earn me some sort of mental health diagnosis, I’m certain).
I think a lot of other (mentally unsound) people feel this way! I don’t think my life is interesting enough for someone to do much prying around in so it doesn’t concern me. It sure is a great way to expand the travel budget. It definitely isn’t for everyone but in this case having such an immediate rapport with the exchangee and a chance to meet her in person ahead of time is ideal (at least for me, she may cancel after meeting me!).
Hi Blonde Kay! I enjoyed your post. I keep your example in mind when I am ready to jump to this experience! Not far from it…I find your positive spirit very inspiring, too! Good luck, I am sure it is going to be so refreshing, like when I stayed few months in NY last year I felt a student again!
Hi Lisa! It’s nice to hear from you! I’m so excited about this exchange – this will be the first time I’ve ever spent so much time in one other country. Maybe you’ll get to Boston one of these days – there are so many students there you can feel like one again!