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First Post: House Swapping

Well, here's my first blog post of hopefully many to come.

Yesterday (Feb 21, 2008), I saw a news article on Good Morning America tha talked about House Swapping. I hadn't heard of this yet, but I'm sure its not new to most of you. I'll have to do a little research to see if its very prevalent in the Kansas City area.

But it occured to me: Wouldn't it be easier to set up a house for a swap if it was Pre-Inspected by a qualified home inspector? If this was a requirement for listing a house for swapping, wouldn't this eliminate a lot of concerns for all parties down the road?

The same could be said for any house that is for sale as well, but seems to be more subjective, though "they" say that approximately 80% of all homes being sold are inspected prior to closing.

I'd like to hear from someone involved in House Swapping. Feel free to call.

OK, so thats not so informative, but its a start. I'll also be posting regularly at my own blog at KC Inspection Info. Stop by and a say Hi.

Posted by Kansas City Home Inspector::John Clason on 02/22/2008 11:51 AM

Comments (5)

home inspections, house swapping

5 Comments on First Post: House Swapping

I've never heard of house swapping. What's it about?

Welcome to Active Rain. It's a lot of fun here. There's also a lot of other home inspector groups you can join, check 'em out.

02/22/2008 11:01 PM

by Joseph Lang - Southern California Home Inspector (Pillar To Post Professional Home Inspection)

Hi Joe. The news article reported two couples in two different cities (Atlanta and Las Vegas, I think) that were having hard times selling their houses. Since they both wanted to relocate to the other city, they were able to just trade houses. Any difference in price would be paid by the person trading from the lower valued home.

I believe there are several websites that offer this brokering service. These couples also used a single real estate agent for the deals, so I'm sure that simplified things in some way. I know this is very popular with vacation homes, but I didn't know about swapping primary residences.

The article also reported how people that want to swap homes cannot be as picky as they might be otherwiswe, as there are less homes available for swapping. So thats why it occured to me that a pre-inspection on swap-able homes would be very valuable.

02/23/2008 10:16 AM

by Kansas City Home Inspector::John Clason (Crown Home Inspections)

John, that's an interesting idea about house-swapping. I agree that a pre-listing inspection would be very valuable in that situation since you have out-of-town buyers. I'll have to look into that.

02/24/2008 07:41 PM

by Joseph Lang - Southern California Home Inspector (Pillar To Post Professional Home Inspection)

Hello,

I agree with all of your comments above. we loved the idea so much, because we too had wanted to sell our home a while back, and no one was coming to open houses, no one was biting. Then we too heard and read all over the place about swapping. Well, we believed in so much we started a company to help buyers, sellers, Real Estate Professionals, moving companies, mortgage companies. You name it we are doing it...we are looking for listings nationwide.Check us Out...We invite personally to be a part of this amazing tool...Connecting buyers and sellers across the USA!! www.americahouseswap.com, Thank you, Lynn

03/12/2008 04:38 PM

by America House Swap

Interesting way to do home purchases. I'm familiar with doing it for vacations but not permanent purchases. Have to do some digging.

03/23/2008 08:22 PM

by Erby Crofutt, Central Kentucky Home Inspector (B4U Close Home Inspections & Radon Testing)