Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyWith the real estate market here in Arizona still in the dumps, an increasing number of home sellers are turning to alternatives including so-called 'house swapping.'
"You've got to figure out to hustle and be creative and be a little innovative," said Cliff Eldridge of Scottsdale
Eldridge placed his Scottsdale home on the market this past spring. Six months went by with Eldridge unable to find any takers.
"For the ten years we've had it, every guest has said 'I love this house,'" said Eldridge. "Then we put it on the market and... nothing."
It quickly became clear to Eldridge that in a down market, the traditional way of selling a house wouldn't get the job done.
So Eldridge turned to an option growing in popularity amongst sellers, house swapping.
"If real estate is going to move, people are going to have to be more creative and get a little more aggressive with it," said Eldridge.
A variety of websites including
Craigslist help people wanting to trade houses find one another.
"I saw (the category)
house swap and I thought, you never know what might come of that," said Phyllis Salino.
Salino hopes to swap her home in east Mesa with one in Fort Collins, Colorado.
"If I have something somebody else wants, that might be the way to go," said Salino.
As for Eldridge, he doesn't know if he'll find someone to trade with.
He does know it beats waiting around and doing nothing.
"Everybody's looking for a bargain, hopefully two people can get one by looking at a swap," said Eldridge.
Other websites devoted to home swapping include:
OnlineHouseTrading.com, HomeExchange.com, house4trade.com, and
goswap.com.
