Our down-sizing/right-sizing took an amazing amount of coordinating. We actually had three sets of friends buying four different properties - all in the same day - all contingent on another sale happening.
The link below will take you to a pretty cute video - outlining the basic idea of our home exchange:
It may look easy and fun in the video - and for the most part it was; but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little stressful at times. Oh, and there were two Matt's, too..... so that kept things interesting.
Matt and Lacey listed their house with me over the summer. We were just starting on their Edwardsville home search when they sent me an email telling me how much they loved this little neighborhood (and then proceeded to describe my subdivision in perfect detail).
Matt and I had been considering a move to a town-house/villa.... somewhere a little smaller - somewhere lawn maintenance was included. So when that email came through while we were watching TV one evening - I hit pause (oh, the joy of Tivo) and asked Matt if he thought we should offer to let Matt and Lacey walk through our house.
To my surprise (Matt Winfield hates moving), he said yes.
So I replied to their email - offering to let them walk through our house once I'd had a chance to clean and stage a little.
They came to see our house, and liked it. Just to be sure, we toured a few more Edwardsville properties before they made up their mind to make us an offer. (As a Realtor [selling my own home] I couldn't represent Matt and Lacey as buyers - so I referred them to another agent in my office.)
Because their house was still for sale.... their offer to us was contingent on me selling their house... (no pressure...)
They went under contract pretty quickly, but THAT offer was contingent, too. We waited a while before exercising the kick-out clause and then returned them to "Active" in the MLS.
After a couple of months - we were all getting anxious. In 'desperation' one evening - while Matt and I were sitting in front of the TV, I sent an email to a bunch of family and friends. I basically laid it all out there - noting that we wanted to move, but we couldn't until this OTHER house sold....
The next morning - Seth and Kirsten (friends AND past clients) called saying THEY had always liked that house - and could they see it that afternoon? They liked Matt and Lacey's house - liked the idea of buying a house from someone they knew... and wanted to make an offer.
Yay! I wasn't authorized to be a dual agent, though - so we brought in yet another agent from my office to represent Seth and Kirsten on their purchase.
But, remember - I mentioned Seth and Kirsten were past clients... and they had a house they needed to sell, too. A house I helped them buy not too long ago. It was a cute little house, largely updated.... Matt and I were ready to move, Matt and I had been considering buying some rental property - so we bit the bullet and made Seth and Kirsten an offer..... contingent on them purchasing Matt and Lacey's house. Really - that was a pretty impossible contingency - seeing as they were using funds from their sale toward their purchase, but it was all about the "intent" per lawyer Matt. Again - can't represent a party to a transaction in which I'm also a party to that transaction...so the agent helping them buy their new house also helped them sell their house to Matt (Winfield) and me.
On December 28th - I attended four closings. First Matt and I bought Seth and Kirsten's house. Then Seth and Kirsten bought Matt and Lacey's house. Then Matt and Lacey bought our house. Then Matt (Winfield) and I went to lunch. Then we stopped by our old house to film part of our video (see above). Oh, yeah - then we drove to a different title company and purchased our new townhouse.
At the end of all of that... we're all still friends. We have a progressive dinner planned so we can all visit our 'old' houses and show off what we've done to our 'new' places:)
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