Finding the perfect home is challenge enough, but sometimes keeping track of mutual exchanges – or even more complicated MultiSwaps – can seem pretty daunting. HomeSwapper user, Sarah-Jayne spoke to us about how she keeps on top of all the HomeSwapper ads she’s actively engaging with.
When you’re looking for a new home and trying to set up a direct swap or MultiSwap, there’s a lot of information that you need to keep track of…
“There’s different elements of the kind of things you need to consider when you’re talking to another person. There’s things about the property, you have to kind of rate the property and the location and the considerations of your own.
“For me, it was some key things like, it needed to be within five or ten minutes walking distance of a decent tube station in London, it needed to have an outside space of some kind, and a couple of other things. Obviously, you can’t get everything you want, so you need to note next to a property what things were good and what things you’re compromising on.”
What Sarah-Jayne quickly found out was that she needed to keep a list…
“I started writing notes and then I thought, ‘Oh okay, I love a spreadsheet’, so I built a spreadsheet that could help me to capture all of the extra elements. It was just about using the information from HomeSwapper and putting it into a view list, which helped highlight and compare the things that were important to me when I was looking for a property.
“I then split my spreadsheet up on whether they were a direct swap or a MultiSwap. If it was a MultiSwap, was it them after my property or am I after their property? In those instances, you have different things to look for to complete the chain.
“If they want your property, you’re then looking for a property that wants theirs. If you want their property, you’re then looking for a property that wants yours, that they want. It adds complexity to the whole situation. I love using spreadsheets; it was a natural thing for me to use to organise everything.”
Have a look at Sarah-Jayne’s spreadsheet so you can create your own! Click on the image to see the way that she broke it all down.
So, how did this method help Sarah-Jayne?
“Whenever I did spend some time on it – which is a good couple of hours at a time once you get into it – I could know where I was with each one. So, I put a note next to one going, ‘You’re waiting on them’, or, ‘This is a great property, you love it, make sure you chase it’ and prioritised them based on my interactions and the property type.
“It’s about helping to manage the interactions and managing the process between people and being able to manage more than one opportunity at one point – the better chance you have of finding some kind of swap.”
Sarah-Jayne built a great system for keeping track of all her potential swaps and help her to work out which features were essential to her and which she could compromise on. Why not give it a go for yourself – it could be just the thing that makes the difference on your swapping journey!
The HomeSwapper Customer Support team are always on hand to give advice and tips on how to get the most from HomeSwapper. They deal with Swappers every day and have a unique insight and view on the thousands of successful swaps that take place on HomeSwapper.
