Has anyone ever swapped a property, whether that be internationally or not. Is it a feasible option. What are the pitfalls?
Actually this post by Krister Rosendahl feels a bit like an advertisement of the Echange Definitif website. Very short post and it does not explain how to use the ED site, since the site is completely unusable and inoperational once you go past the listing of your property. Strangely, they do approve your listing and past that you can forget it, cause you will not be able to contact anyone, let alone to log in to it again or recover your password or contact the support. All your inquiries, questions, even your requests where to pay for will fall on deaf ears. Echange Definitif, allegedly the shady website. This is my opinion based on my long time experience.
Our neighbours here in Cantal did a swap, and are now about to move to the south of France.
They used this website to find their house : http://echangedefinitif.com/
I thought we were talking about buying, not the swapping of holiday homes.
Ron,that would seem that at least you were operating in known (expensive?) fields, so I could imagine there would be appeal for people on both sides of the pond.
Sounds the most logical one I have heard so far on this post.
We have been considering this, but have only two locations (in UK - Berwick-upon-Tweed and Alnwick)we'd consider, which is restrictive. We're realistic about that it wouldn't be a like-for-like (you'd need 1/3 million in UK minimum for its like!) and we'd prefer to go for a refresh, which makes things even more unlikely. The exchange sites out there are full of Spanish exchanges and quite a few requesting France (we're in Poitou-Charentes) but nothing that appeals.
The only other thing we'd worry about is the matching values, as we'd consider a smaller and cheaper tatty place but then we'd have the matter of the other party making up the difference in value to us....internally in France I can see it working, but not sure how well it works for how we'd need :-{
We just did in December. It is feasible and actually quite advantageous, because you basically sell/buy two houses on one single acte de vente. Thus lower transaction costs. The main problem is the matching. It is an enormous coincidence to find a buyer who is selling exactly what you want, in the right spot. We sold our renovated farm in the countryside to a couple selling their dilapidated house in the Centre of Tournus. And already a bit sorry, because there is much more work than anticipated. http://de-tournus.com/2014/12/23/retapage-total-du-voleur-de-temps/
I've done it with people we know or with whom we had a mutual friend. Never had a problem. I knew people who had done it through a service, traveled all over the world, only problem that they encountered was one apartment was deceptively small. I will be looking to swap our Paris apartment for one on New York City this fall.
I have not but there was a woman up the road in a rather cut off house, albeit on a surfaced road. her husband had died before we got here, so I imagine she was lonely. I didn't see her at all at this time last year and the house was locked up with somebody calling to check the place, so I asked him if she was OK. She is now living in the village, two kilometres away and far less lonely.
Some people were there renovating during early summer, so I said 'hello', after a few days got chatting. They have it as a second home for now but as their retirement place in very few years. Over a coffee they explained that they were trying to sell their house and had seen one of the same value here, but in the village whereas they prefer the open country. So they talked about swapping. In the end, our former neighbour had told people she wanted to move which was passed on to the people in the village who actually wanted to move to a larger town. She exchanged with the people in the village, who in turn took the house from the people who now have their second home along the way. The latter are living in rented accommodation near the man's work. All they had all round was notaires' fees since they took the value of each house as equal to the others and had no agents involved.
So that is a three house swap. How the heck it is actually done, do not ask. Just buying one was tiring enough, let alone jumping through hoops swapping. As for the pitfalls, no idea.