[Ohiogirl]

It is work (lots of emails) to arrange, but we think worth it. At first had our home in TV listed, now have our condo in Ohio listed - but we mention both in the description. Have not had any problems. I think people are more careful of your place as they know you are, or will be, staying in theirs. Also, because you are paying for access to the website, you usually only have serious folks out there. We have mostly done it with other retired folks (more flexibility on dates, usually). Plus, we don't want kids in our places.

I think it is safer than renting your place, actually. We try to make sure we have stored any paperwork with social security #s, etc. with friends/relatives, although really anything could always be scanned and stored on the computer. Has forced us to keep all that stuff under control and down to one of those fireboxes.

We just clear out some closet space and a couple of shelves. We leave it very clean and have found that everyone we've exchanged with pretty much does the same. Had already developed a "renter's info notebook," when we used to rent out our place, so we just keep that up to date, and did another for our Ohio condo.

Probably the one drawback, especially if it's not a simultaneous exchange, is that people can get sick, decide to sell, etc. Just be sure, if you are flying, that you can make adjustments if needed (we always try to fly Southwest), and maybe have an alternate plan. For instance, for the exchange we have coming up in August, if something happened, we would probably just cut short our trip and stay at a B&B or hotel. We are already booked for 2 nights at a B&B on our way there, wouldn't be a big deal to just stay somewhere else on 3 more nights and head back early, making it a 5 night trip instead of a 9 or 10 night trip.

It is probably easier if you have 2 homes - but not necessary, just harder to coordinate. We arranged one exchange thru TOTV postings. There are lots of people who might like to spend some time in The Villages without the high rents, to try it out. I believe more people move to TV from other places in Florida than from anywhere else.

It is not for everyone - some are horrified that strangers will be sleeping in their bed, but we have stayed in much nicer places than we could have afforded by renting - a beachfront condo, a downtown Chicago high-rise, and a trendy condo on the busline with T-station access just outside Boston. We don't think it's worth all the hassle to do it for less than a week. A bonus is that we will probably exchange again with our Chicago high-rise person - we love Chicago for a visit every 2 or 3 years and she has ties here. Win-win.

There is a blog I follow - Retirement: a Full-Time Job - where the author discusses their home exchanges. She uses home exchange dot com as well. We do other trips and cruises, but home exchanging has worked for us. We also have borrowed/loaned bikes, beach paraphernalia, etc. while doing this.