Real estate agents might have stopped by the last swap home we used. It took us a full year to cash in our half of the non-simultaneous exchange. During that time our exchange partner decided to sell his home. He let us know in advance that this was happening and he even asked his broker to avoid showing the house during the weekend we were using it. Total effect for us was having to clean the home thoroughly each time we went out, just in case an eager buyer insisted on seeing the house immediately. No problem, except for the fact that this was the weekend our three-year old discovered jigsaw puzzles.
Our non-simultaneous exchange partner handled this life change the home exchange way: with open communication and adherence to his home exchange commitment. Then there's the wrong way.
Here's my candidate for sneakiest home exchanger of the year. He offered us a swap in January. We asked him to create a swap agreement with us. He took a while to complete his half of the contract but finally in late March he told us he had signed on the dotted (electronic) line and was ready for us to sign. Our swap would be official! Except for one little detail.
The electronic home exchange contract we use has each home-owner fill in the swap home's address. I tried to do a map search by entering that address into Google. What popped up was...a "For Sale" listing from a local real estate firm! The exchanger seemed to be selling the swap home out from under us.
My first reaction was that there must be a mistake. Perhaps our swap partner had listed the home at one point in the past and changed his mind. Or maybe the listing was left over from when he himself bought the house from a previous owner. It wouldn't do to over-react.
So we contacted the realtor. She sounded enthusiastic! "This cabin is 2000 sq feet and certainly feels roomy and has been on the market a little less than 2 months." Hmmm, that means the owner put his home up for sale AFTER agreeing to the exchange.
The real estate agent had even better news: "the sellers are very motivated. They are not able to come up and use [this vacation home] often."
It would be one thing if our swap were scheduled for the following month. After all, it takes time to go through the process of approving a home-owner's loan, filing paperwork and so on. But our exchange is scheduled for Thanksgiving, a full ten months after the swapper listed his home for sale. If he can't sell his home with almost a year of lead-time, it's a termite-infested dump.
There is only one conclusion: this sneaky swapper is hoping to sell his home before our exchange. If it does sell, he will just tell us "tough luck." Since he urged me to buy airline tickets as soon as possible, this makes me really upset. Contracts must be meaningless for this man. He just told me to sign our contract but he has his home listed for sale at the same time.
Now I need to confront him. Do you have any ideas about how to handle this situation?
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