Is a second home an advantage?

Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to start a discussion about obtaining a second home specifically for home exchange which could help to find more options and flexibility, either by buying, renting or revising a family home
That might be useful for those relatively new here or anyone who hasn’t decided for a similar purpose yet.

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Many members have second homes on the site. Very often these homes are also on rental platforms as well. I’m not sure many would actually buy a home in order to exchange though.

That is actually an expensive option. If you have a second home or want one for reasons other than home exchange of course list it but to but one for home exchanging you might as well just rent wherever you go.

I guess both comments above are true; Buying an house could not be a good idea only for Home exchanging.
But take a look with a long term perspective!
Suppose you are planning to buy a summer house or you have already a summer house. You could buy a smaller downtown place instead or sell the existing summer place and buy a downtown apartment instead. When you think about coming 20 years period you could exchange that place both for the summer vacations and/or for any other options (vacation, work, etc.). Of course you could let the place rent through different platforms as well…

I was thinking about this… in many jurisdictions of course rent income would be taxable, but Home Exchange points - unlikely to draw ire and arguably are non-taxable. That seems a huge advantage if you don’t need to maintain some kind of margin on a property (I.e. work hard for $$$) but want to benefit by lowering your cost to travel? I would imagine less wear and tear on the property too, all things equal.

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It’s a interesting question, if you just have a second house I think use it only for Home Exchange is too much, but you can rent it in other platforms (Booking, Air B&B,… ) that has more sense to me. Beside if you are paying a mortgage in that way it can help you. So you could use the house with three purposes, your own use, like tourist renting and exchanging.

I love second homes :heart:

Not exactly the same situation but we own a building with 3 apartments: we live in one and rent the other 2 (long-term). I already thought of keeping one of the apartment for Homeexchange in case one of our tenant leaves, but :

  • It means furnishing the whole apartment from scratch, from sofa to spoons. So even if I want to try it for a few months or a year for example, I have to invest in all that to start.
  • It’s difficult to know in advance if we’ll get many requests for this apartment (small apartment, suitable to 2 people max).
  • I live in a city where short term rentals are extremely controlled so my apartment would only be on HomeExchange and I won’t be able to get any money from it at all (and I’m still paying my mortgage).
  • Also, we are experiencing a housing crisis so I’m not sure it’s a good idea to dedicate an apartment to short term rental / exchange instead of a long term home for someone.

These are just my first thoughts about this, I haven’t made intensive research or calculations. I don’t think we’ll do this one day actually.