[quote=CA renter]Thank you very much for posting this, ER. Because of some of your posts in the past, I had created an account and started a profile on HomeExchange.com a few months ago. Unfortunately, I got cold feet because I just can’t get my head around having strangers sleeping in our bed…and even worse, our kids’ beds. It just doesn’t feel right to me. So, I’ve been thinking more (also because of information from you) about buying a condo or something small that we could use to rent out on a short-term basis or use for vacation exchanges. Of course, with the recent frenzy, we’ve had to put that on hold for a bit, but it’s definitely on our radar. Thanks for all your input, ER! :)[/quote]
You are TOTALLY welcome CAR!
That’s what these boards are for. Sharing valuable and helpful information. 🙂
I absolutely don’t blame you at all CAR for not being able to ‘pull the trigger’ on the Home Exchange thingy for your primary residence. That’s certainly understandable and my wife is the EXACT same as you.
An investment property is a GREAT idea. And keep in mind it doesn’t have to necessarily be here in San Diego. If you maybe have relatives in another desirable city where tourists might want to go yet is more affordable then that can often times work out.
Like you, I tried to buy an investment property. I made several offers last year and the beginning of this year. Smaller places in Carmel Valley but it didn’t work out and prices just went up too quickly to the point I’m not going to chase the market now.
Just keep in mind it can be a really small property. For example, MANY of the exchanges I do are for smaller 1 bedroom properties I have. Often times we’ll swap that for a large house where there is plenty of room for my family/kids. So don’t feel like it’s not a fair exchange even if it’s a smaller property.
You will find that many wealthy people own second properties or might be empty nesters that own LARGE primary properties that never sold their properties after all their kids moved out. They didn’t need to sell it so they still own it. We’ve done tons of exchanges like that. Especially when we were exchanging with properties here in the San Diego area before we moved here.
The whole beauty of Home Exchanges is that it doesn’t have to be an “even swap”. We’ve exchanged $175,000 one bedroom condos for $2-3 million houses. It’s great!
And of course, the beauty of that is you can do short-term rentals between home exchanges. That’s what we do. So there is always income coming in. As is typical with real estate it’s mostly location, location, location driven.
Feel free to email me if you need any other information on it CAR. By now I really feel like we are “Home Exchange Pros”. 😉
