CANTON, Ga., March 6, 2009
Stuck In Your Home? Swap It
CBS Evening News: Housing Swap Web Sites Are Helping Connect Sellers In Recessionary Market
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Play CBS Video Video Virtual 'Realty' Just as some individuals find dates online, some homeowners are now turning to the web as a means of trading real estate. Kelly Wallace reports on this new Internet phenomenon.
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Dale and Leslie Thomas, of Canton, Ga., have listed their home on a home swap site. (CBS)
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“We really thought in this market, we’re going to be here forever,” Petrocco said.
Across town, Lyca Shan wanted to downsize from her four-bedroom home, but had little food traffic at open houses.
“My whole plate of cookies was still there. I know that was a bad sign,” Shan said, laughing. “I was like, ‘There’s no cookies gone and those were good cookies.’”
So Shan got creative, and swapped sweets for a new strategy. So did Petrocco. They each heard about online trading sites where the idea is simple: I’ll buy your house if you'll buy mine.
“Basically, it’s like a dating Web site for houses,” Petrocco said. “Really.”
On Dec. 1, Petrocco listed her townhouse - and her wish list for a new home in the same suburb - on onlinehousetrading.com. Less than two weeks later, she was matched with Lyca.
“Melissa’s house popped up on there, and I was like, no way, this looks cool,” Shan said.
Just two weeks after that, Shan bought Petrocco’s house and Petrocco bought Shan’s. Two closings at the same time.
Petrocco never though she’d be using a “dating service” to sell her home.
“But it’s a brilliant idea,” she said.
It’s an idea that seems to be gaining steam in a dismal housing market. For example one of the housing swapping Web sites, goswap.org, had 90 listings in 2007. It has nearly 10,000 now.
“The areas that have been hit the hardest in real estate, such as the South, those are the areas where we have most of the listings,” said Sergei Naumov, goswap.org's founder.
One sign of just how anxious - and desperate - many sellers are: when Wallace put up an interview request on goswap.org, CBS News received more than 100 e-mails, like one saying “Pick me! Pick me!” and got dozens of calls.
Dan and Leslie Thomas are hoping to sell their five-bedroom home in Canton, Ga., so they can move to wherever their daughter Jennifer ends up playing college basketball.
They were lucky online once before, meeting through Match.com.
“It worked out once, why can’t it work out again?” Dan Thomas asked.
About a half-dozen sites are devoted to permanent house swaps, but it’s unclear how many successful deals have taken place. Users don’t have to report back when they make a trade.
“This is easier than finding a wife,” Dan Thomas said. “This house trading is easier than that.”
Some comfort, perhaps, for stressed-out homebuyers in recessionary times.
For more information on housing swaps, visit:
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Add a Comment
- I used several of the free house swapping sites and <a href="http://goswap.org">www.goswap.org</a> appears to be the one I am receiving offers on weekly basis from. Some of the other sites either charge too much or have only a few listings.
- Reply to this comment
- Another great site for housing swaps is www.luxuryassetnetwork.com - buy, sell and trade residential and commercial real estate.
- Reply to this comment
- Was this a "sponsored" news story? Did GoSwap pay to be featured so prominently?
I can't help but be suspicious when a story contains so many links to commercial sites. This reads more like an advertisement than a real trend. - Reply to this comment
- A family of four who cant make it in 1900 square feet during a stock market crash? Just goes to show you how out of touch with reality Americans have become. They no longer can see the writting on the wall. Maybe a trip to the Philippines or some other country should be mandatory after High School. Something is needed to sober up these bizzarro planet thinkers.
Its the Republicans who taught them this drivel. - Reply to this comment
- Necessity is the mother of invention. This is a great idea.
- Reply to this comment
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