How is your home exchange balance sheet? I'm not talking about a graph showing all the money you've saved by using swap homes instead of hotels. No, this is more cosmic, man. I'm talking about your home exchange karmic balance.
I was introduced to home exchange karma by a swapper from the Portland, Oregon area. His home served as a staging area at the start of my infamous Pacific Coast bicycle tour from Portland to Baja, California. He allowed us to ship our bikes to his home, use his tools to assemble them in his garage and stay in his spare bedroom at the beginning of our trip.
We expected to return his kind hospitality with the use of our own home but he demurred. "Home exchangers have let me stay at their places without using my house so I'm returning the favor. Just make sure you do the same for someone else."
This man had the attitude that home exchange is a community of like-minded people. When we offer someone the use of our home there are greater rewards than using their place for exactly the same number of days.
My home exchange balance sheet shows many non-simultaneous swaps where I have allowed people to use my place but never taken them up on my half of the exchange. There are also a few instances where I have used someone else's home who did not end up traveling here. I have a procedure to deal with non-simultaneous swaps that clarifies what I expect from my exchange partners. I'll share that with you another time. In the mean time, there is no better way to jump-start your home exchange karma than by offering hospitality or a non-simultaneous stay while you are out of town (previously called "house sitting") to a swapper who requests it at a convenient time.
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