It is undoubtedly a good idea to get to know your prospective home exchange partners before doing an exchange. In any well prepared,  decently planned home exchange, conversation prior to the vacation is a must.

Not only does it provide you with a great assistance in finding your way through a) the house, b) the district, and c) the city, but it can also arm you with a wealth of information about top tourist attractions, restaurant recommendations, upcoming concerts and shows etc. The most experienced, expert guide you could have for your vacation is sat there at the other end of the internet, just waiting for your message. So it makes a lot of sense on a practical level to have a fair amount of contact before you set off for your vacation.

On a personal level too, it makes an awful lot of sense to build up a rapport with your home exchangers. If there are things about your home that you are worried about, or that require special care, then establishing a sense of trust between the exchangers is the ideal way of approaching this. It’s good for everyone’s peace of mind to talk through the plans and get to know fellow exchangers so that you feel comfortable and relaxed by the time that your vacations come along.

So, how to set about doing this? Our website provides you with an internal messaging system which is easy to use, and which sends you notifications to your email inbox when you receive a new message. Alternatively you can swap email address, or telephone numbers. An excellent way of building up a solid, personal relationship with your exchange partners is to use Skype. International calls via phone lines can be costly. However, if you download Skype, all you need is a microphone, and you can make either free international calls, or international calls at a very cheap rate (depending on the area).

By all accounts, it’s worthwhile making the effort, and with email and Skype, the only cost is the time you spend.

Home exchangers of the world unite!

Here at Homeforhome, (because we`re nice), we want to give you some tips and advice in creating a selection of photos that will help you receive more home exchange offers.

We know what it`s like. You`ve spent the time uploading your profile, and you just want to get through the process and hurry up and get home exchanging. And then you realize that you need to go and take photos of your house.

Which means finding your camera. Finding the cable. Cleaning. Tidying. Waiting until there`s some decent day light.

But it really is worth it. A good photo can give someone a real taste of all the great things about your home, and why you love living there. Which raises YOUR stakes in the home exchange system.

So firstly, let`s assume that it`s all clean and tidy and ready for action. A few “do`s” and “don`t”s.

The “Don`t”s

1) Try to avoid dark photos where you can`t see much of the house. It will give other users the impression that the house is badly lit, uncomfortable, or not very welcoming. People will just have a negative sensation and won`t feel very excited by your offer.

2) By all means you can include photos that include people. However, it is important to focus on the house. People are thinking of the space in which they will able to spend their precious holidays. The home needs to be the focus. And let`s be honest. Photos of dark rooms with a bright light shining on a young child, or a mug-shot of the owner are not likely to attract many exchange proposals.

3) Photos of you scuba diving, or dressed up in 16th century fencing costume are fine for your profile picture (each to their own!), but when it comes to photos of the home people will be put off if you don`t have some serious photos. Generally, people are a little suspicious and want to know that their prospective exchange partners are serious. If you don`t have proper photos up, then the other user does not have much to go on.

4) Don`t put up pre-saved photos that you have in your image bank. *That*pink flower or *that* sunset. It`s frustrating for other users. It`s actually worth the wait of getting your own photos up there.

5) Don´t put a photo that is larger than 3mb because it won´t load. All photos have to be 3mb or less.

The “Do”s

1) Take plenty of photos of the rooms of the house, the garden, and if you like photos of local interest points.

2) Try to stand back, for example in the door way, or stand outside of a window looking into the room in order to be able to capture a good section of the room.

3) The rule of thirds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds Imagine that the image is divided into three equal parts horizontally, and three equal parts vertically. Try put the natural lines or sections of the photo along these imaginary lines.

4) Make sure that you rotate the images first on your computer before uploading them, as you won`t be able to rotate them once they`re up on the site.