House Swap?

December 6, 2006 2:50 PM

Has anyone ever considered a MeFi service akin to HouseExchange where members can meet and swap homes for periods of time? This would be especially convenient for folks who can work remotely and who want to live abroad for periods of time.
posted by deern the headlice to MetaFilter-Related at 2:50 PM (35 comments total)

man. we haven't had a crazy pony request inawhile. thanks for doing your part deern!
posted by Stynxno at 3:00 PM on December 6, 2006

With a name like "deern the headlice," you won't be staying at Chez Flo anytime soon.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:07 PM on December 6, 2006 [1 favorite]

im in ur house ... uh ... livin there.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 3:23 PM on December 6, 2006 [2 favorites]

That's the premise of Troll 2 -and with less hilarious results, The Holiday. [As seen on MeFi].
posted by yeti at 3:31 PM on December 6, 2006

I think there should be a Mefi website where we all bake each other cakes. It can be called BakeForMetafilter.

What do people think?
posted by reklaw at 3:35 PM on December 6, 2006 [2 favorites]

I don't know if I would have thought to request this, but I will say that I would consider using such a thing. I paid four months of rent for my vacant apartment not too long ago. It drove me nuts to know that it was just sitting here empty. If I had to pay rent, someone should have at least been living there.

Would there really be enough supply and demand to do such a thing, though? Not so sure about that one. Although, if we got this pony, surely someone could let it stay at their house.
posted by veggieboy at 3:35 PM on December 6, 2006

Plus . . . This is your first post? And your user name contains "headlice"? Maybe the housing swap site should contain provisions for background checks and delousing.
posted by veggieboy at 3:46 PM on December 6, 2006

Would there really be enough supply and demand to do such a thing, though?

That, and the degree of risk involved. I consider "mefite" a positive personal reference, but not one of "stay in my house" magnitude. If Music is somewhat niche, I can't imagine what the active audience for Houseswap would be.
posted by cortex at 3:53 PM on December 6, 2006

Just don't anyone declaw my cats or circumcise my friends while you're staying there.
posted by matildaben at 3:56 PM on December 6, 2006

I think this is a great idea, but I'd prefer it to be implemented only after matthowie finishes MeFi WifeSwap.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 4:00 PM on December 6, 2006

I'd like this service, as I'm taking a few one-week trips this winter and shooting for living somewhere else for one month a year (as a sort of test to myself and my family, to see if we can experience other cities as residents do), but trusting other members not to break my stuff and keep the cats feed is kind of tough.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:03 PM on December 6, 2006

That went live a while ago, KAC. Or at least that's what your wife said.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:03 PM on December 6, 2006 [1 favorite]

Is this spam? The very first thing this guy posts to this site and it's a plug for some website?
posted by bob sarabia at 4:10 PM on December 6, 2006

God, for some reason I thought this was about wifeswapping.
posted by chrismear at 4:11 PM on December 6, 2006

I actually like the idea. As someone who hates hotels and loves to cook when I travel it would be great. Plus I want to be very far away from Vancouver when the 5-Ring Circus rolls into town.

The bonus is that with such a relativley small community if some messed up your pad, it would be pretty easy to embarrass the hell out of them by posting all the yucky details of how so-and-so got man-love-juice all over my sheets.
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 4:12 PM on December 6, 2006

If someone fucked up my home, I'd take little comfort in posting yucky details.
posted by cortex at 4:23 PM on December 6, 2006

Is this spam?

That was what I thought, too. Maybe posting to the blue or the green is more likely to be spotted these days.
posted by greycap at 4:24 PM on December 6, 2006

Is this spam?

So should we start a new MeTa thread about this one? Oh. New pony. MetaMeTa?
posted by gauchodaspampas at 4:46 PM on December 6, 2006

There is something of a precedent for stuff like this - the New York Review and The Nation both have classified sections for this IIRC. Given the generally well-to-do liberal readership, they tend to be things like "upstate new york writer seeks to swap cabin on organic farm with London flat for a winter while finishing book on Protosocialism during the Reformation".

It's an interesting idea - if it could be done without causing huge legal pains.
posted by freebird at 5:04 PM on December 6, 2006

I'd like this. I've house swapped before and it worked out great.

I don't think I'd want pets included, though. I wouldn't to luck after yours or to inflict me on you.
posted by timeistight at 5:24 PM on December 6, 2006

(I promise it's not spam. HouseExchange is the most common service of its ilk, so I referenced it for those unfamiliar with the process. If it was spam I would be suggesting we use the H.E. service, rather than suggesting we do something of the sort here at this site amongst members.)
posted by deern the headlice at 5:24 PM on December 6, 2006

The call is coming from inside the house!!!
posted by ericb at 6:19 PM on December 6, 2006

Jesus, I have a cold: I wouldn't want to look after your pets, nor would I want to inflect my pet on strangers.
posted by timeistight at 6:26 PM on December 6, 2006

more like LouseExchange amirite
posted by brain_drain at 6:38 PM on December 6, 2006 [1 favorite]

I've had two complete strangers stay in my loft in Albuquerque. Found them from CL and it worked out great. They took care of my plants and I felt better that there were people in the place instead of it sitting empty for nearly three weeks.

I'd have been even more comfortable with a MeFite whom I'd had some sort of idea what type of person they were.

I'd use it.
posted by FlamingBore at 7:55 PM on December 6, 2006

inflict... that's it for me tonight.
posted by timeistight at 8:13 PM on December 6, 2006

Imagine the post-swap flameouts.
posted by tula at 8:58 PM on December 6, 2006

I have an empty house right now. I love this idea.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:21 PM on December 6, 2006

CouchSurfing.com
posted by blue_beetle at 9:24 PM on December 6, 2006

Associated Press: 'Couchsurfing' travel takes off on Web.
posted by ericb at 7:31 AM on December 7, 2006

I like this idea. My wife and I have often talked about it as a vacation idea. Swapping homes with other MeFites is seems no worse than swapping it with anyone else you find via a house-swap service.
posted by GuyZero at 12:06 PM on December 7, 2006

I've done this before -- when I was in Europe working on a travel book, I got to stay in an Austrian hockey recruiter's house in Vienna while he was on the road in the States selling hockey teams Czechs or whatever it is hockey recruiters do... much nicer accommodations that I expected, and he was happy to do it since no one would've been there anyway...

(Jessamyn, I think I want to go lock myself away at your house in VT while I finish this book... get myself snowed in with no internet & then I'd HAVE to write!) :)
posted by bitter-girl.com at 5:27 PM on December 7, 2006

I like the idea, but aren't occurrences of people being seriously able to participate going to be relatively rare? A thread on MetaTalk seems the obvious place. Something like:

"Hey, anyone from New York fancy free accommodation for a two-week holiday in London? Oh yeah, and I'll need your house keys while you're gone..."
posted by headlessness at 1:41 AM on December 8, 2006

I'm willing to post in MetaTalk, I guess . . . but is that kosher? It also doesn't seem very efficient. Maybe there could be a box in the profile to be checked if people are interested in being contacted about housing swaps and then you chould search by users who had that box ticked? Probably that's somehow unworkable and someone will come along and tell me why.
posted by veggieboy at 7:10 AM on December 8, 2006

I'd be down with a houseswap (or, pony!, a general MetaFreecycle section where I could post that I had, uh... two baby shoes, never worn, and whoever wanted them first could mail me their address).
posted by soviet sleepover at 9:50 AM on December 8, 2006