House-Swapping Trend Emerges

[Roland99]

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/01/house_swapping.html

If you've been trying to sell your house for over a year now, you should pay attention to this story.

Instead of relying on Realtors, free giveaways and other gimmicks to get some traffic into your house, how about swapping your house with someone who may be in the market to sell a house that you could see yourself moving into?

It's doing business the old-fashioned way: bartering, except that new technology now puts you closer to achieving this American dream. And more than 16,000 people around the country are apparently roped in to this trend, according to industry estimates.

As the real estate market deteriorated over the last two years with buyers developing cold feet, web-savvy entrepreneurs sensed an opportunity. Close to half a dozen websites have now cropped up to cater to this market.

We'll be seeing more and more bartered transactions going on as people find the money in their wallets ain't worth much anymore.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Just trade deeds? Interesting concept.

I would hope that the parties would have home inspections, etc. to make sure the deal would not be disadvantage any party.

[SoCalDem]

2. Deeds yes..mortgages no

There's no way around the legal shitstorm when transferring property.. people better be careful or they may end up in bigger trouble than they ever thought possible,,

[Roland99]

3. The Next Slum?

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/subprime


yikes!