You have heard of people swapping homes for vacation purposes, but for a permanent living situation? People who are burnt out with the market or afraid to get them home on a long possibly fruitless lease, are not trying to find their own means to move and get rid of their home. They are cutting out the middlemen and finding people who want to trade homes with them.

Of course, this is not a magic solution, there are many factors to consider. It could take a long time to find the other home swapper, and you might have to forgo some things you had your heart set on (porch, attic, etc) in order to find someone who likes your home as well. You also want to try and find someone who does not have a big debt on their home as financing could be tricky. One site that specializes in home trading is OnlineHouseTrading.com which also offers advice, such as using a one tite company to make sure the deal is fair (aka you buy their home but they back out of buying yours, leaving you saddled with 2 homes). The site also allows you to post your own listing for a fee of $19.95. Other similar swap sites are GoSwap.org, Craigslist.com, DomuSwap.com, and DaytoneHomeTrader.com. These sites along with another have reportedly around 16,000 listings for home swaps.

Some brokers are trying to prevent client lossage by making listing home swaps as well, a type of new marketing effort.