The lack of buyers for homeowners stuck with the houses when housing prices started sliding, along with the tightening credit market, has caused them to start looking for creative ways to get rid of their homes.
There are an "estimated 16,000 Americans are in the market to trade their homes, according to ConsumerAffairs.com. That’s not many in the grand scheme of things—there were over four million homes on the market at the end of 2007—but the number is steadily growing as more people get fed up with the lack of buyers."
While the idea of exchanging homes for vacations with someone else has been around for a long time, exchanging homes permanently is relatively new, and online marketers have responded to the growing demand by building web sites for exchange purposes.
The practicals of transactions are pretty simple and straightforward. "If the homes are of equal value, then it's an even trade.
"If the homes are of different value, then cash is paid to make up the difference.
"While it's pretty simple, swappers who've done it say the down side is that they couldn't be as picky as they could have been in a traditional transaction."
When swap partners meet directly online they also save on brokers’ sales commissions - usually four to seven percent in most markets.
Some Web sites now offering people the opportunity to swap homes:
Some Web sites have also emerged to help people decide on what neighborhood to buy a house. Some of the more important are Walkscore.com, which will let you know how far it is to stores or parks nearby. Another good site for couples with children is greatschools.com, which tells you about the quality of schools. And finally, rottenneighbor.com also does what it says, reveals the type of people who you may be living next door to.
» Creative, Online Ways Homeowners and Developers are Finding to Sell Their Houses from ManagersRealm
Business is nothing else, if it's not finding creative solutions to the problems people face. With that in mind, businesses are emerging on the Internet which cater to the problem of people being able to sell their homes in a... [Read More]
Tracked on: February 22, 2008 2:31 PM | Permalink to Trackback