House Swapping Is a Growing Trend in Tough Real Estate Market

Feb. 21, 2008 — -- For years, families have been swapping homes for a week or so, so that both parties can try another location for a vacation. In this tough real estate market, a new trend is emerging in which families actually swap houses for good.

Allen and Wilma Sawtelle's house in Pahrump, Nev., wasn't drawing any interest from local buyers. Neither was the home of Amy and Roy Farr of Cartersville, Ga.

The Sawtelles wanted to move to Georgia to live closer to their grandchildren, and the Farrs needed to move to Parhump because of Amy's new job.

Frustrated, the two couples found each other on a Web site specifically dedicated to people looking to swap houses.

"I do see more Internet sites available for these bartering arrangements," said Lawrence Yun of the National Association of Realtors.

Some of those Web sites include:

Here's how it works: Each family sells one house in one transaction, and then buys another house in a separate transaction. It just happens that they're buying each other's houses.

While it's that simple, both the Sawtelles and Farrs agree that one of the downsides of swapping houses is they couldn't be as picky as they might be in a traditional transaction, but they were happy about the price.

"We saved a lot of money. For one thing we ended up using one real estate agent instead of two. And because he was doing two deals at once he was willing to cut his commission tremendously," Roy Farr said.

Wendy Bounds, Wall Street Journal columnist and "Good Morning America" contributor, offers details on how house swapping works and the pros and cons.