Home Exchange Academy

Having previewed a copy of this new e-book on Home Exchange written by Athena Rickby, 25 year veteran of 40+ home exchanges, I found it to be well written in a clear, concise style and with very useful content for prospective home exchangers.

As Athena herself says: "From my personal observations, there is a host of potential home exchangers who continually "window shop", but always hesitate from joining a club at the last minute because they suffer from the "what if" syndrome. Home Exchange Academy goes to great lengths to allay their unfounded fears. Also, a great many of those that have committed to joining a club never make use of that membership fully. They enter some information initially, then seemingly forget all about it. They don't realize there's so much more they could be doing to attract interest and invite inquiries."

Other books published in the past tend to have leaned towards promoting one or other of the major clubs to the exclusion of the competition. Athena's book is impartial and she merely hopes that her book will help other home exchangers make better use of their club memberships.

To give you a taste of what the book contains and how useful it could be to novice home swappers, here is a list of Contents:

Introduction 6
What Is A Home Exchange 8
Who Exchanges Homes 9
Bonus Features 9
My Own Experiences 10
How Home Exchanging Began 11
Selecting Your Home Exchange Club 12
The Major Differences 13
How their members are contacted 13
Paid Memberships or Free 15
Directory Based Clubs 15
Points System / Full Service Clubs 16
How Do You Find A List of These Clubs 17
How On Earth Do You Decide 18
Clubs' Home Pages 18
Membership Fees 19
Clubs' Published Contact Information 19
Listings' Published Start and End Dates 19
Some Clubs' Inflated Membership Figures 20
Hiding Your Contact Information 21
Privacy Policy 21
Listing Demographics 22
Additional Customer Support 22
Guarantees 22
Evaluate Your Selections 23
Test Them! 23
Call their Customer Service 23
Send questions to their email address 24
The Adventure Begins 24
A few tips 24
How should you set up your listing 25
Illustrate your listing with good photographs 27
Children and pets 28
Your location 28
Your own Home Exchange Web Site 29
Contact Between Members 30
Receiving Inquiries and Replies 32
Declining Inquiries 33
Your listed email address 34
Developing likely inquiries 34
References 35
A Written Agreement 36
Car Exchange 36
Sample Car Exchange Agreement 37
Payments 38
Pets 38
Watering Plants 38
Clarification 39
It's A Matter of Trust 39
Perfection rarely happens 40
Sample Home Exchange Agreement 42
The Next Step 46
Preparing Your Home 46
Family Treasures and Irreplaceable Items 47
Your Insurance 47
Pets 48
Your Home Exchange Book 48
Sample Home Exchange Book 50
Warning 60
My Ten Golden Home Exchange Rules 60
General Tips and Advice 61
In Conclusion 65

For anyone contemplating a home swap for the first time, this book has a wealth of information and valuable references. To obtain a copy of the Home Exchange Academy e-book from Green Theme International Home Exchange the cost is just GB£10.00 or Euros 14,50. GTI Home Exchange members based in the USA may obtain the e-book direct from Athena's Home Exchange Academy web-site.