Have you ever felt like you needed some time away from everything but you don’t have the money to cover the cost of a hotel for an extended period? Or maybe you’re a person who enjoys traveling to various places and immersing yourself fully into the new culture. You could be one of the people struggling to sell your property in the slumping housing market and just looking for a change of scenery.

House swapping is an option that’s growing in popularity and you can arrange to swap homes for as long or short a time as agreed upon. You need to promote your home and area so people located where you want to go will be interested in swapping.

I have a friend who did it and had a great time out in England for two weeks. We live in the Windy City so he mentioned the most popular Chicago attractions like our sports teams, famous shopping centers and restaurants located close to his apartment and another guy in London saw it and was interested.

At first I honestly thought my friend was crazy for agreeing to do it but there are a lot of benefits to house swapping.

Huge savings

My friend and I have taken trips together during college when neither of us really had any money and we would split the cost of the hotel room and try to find the cheapest restaurants and fast food spots. This time he called me from London talking about how nice (and free!) the apartment he swapped into was and how he had a fridge full of food that the owner welcomed him to eat. So not only did he not have to spend any money on a hotel but he also got to eat well for free and buy the groceries he wanted.

Safety first 

I like to think of myself as a positive person but when I think of a stranger staying in my house I can’t help but think of what could end up missing. My friend decided to find a house swapping partner through a paid website. You can choose to bypass paying and search for a partner on your own but you may be taking a risk that way. With the paid site you get to see people who have swapped homes before and read about their experiences. It would give me assurance that I could trust the person that I’m swapping with and not have to worry about returning home from an international trip to an empty apartment.

Pick a spot and go

The biggest attraction to house swapping for my friend was the people willing to swap in cities and countries he’s always wanted to see. It’s almost like trading basketball cards as a kid because you can find all the places you want to go but you have to be in a spot that others would want to visit. Fortunately for us, plenty of people around the world would love to see Chicago.

My friend has another trip planned in a few weeks and I’m thinking about giving it a shot myself. Have you ever swapped houses or thought about doing it? Email me at meagan@slingshotseo.com.