Anyone. Trading homes is just another way of selling property. The concept is especially beneficial to someone who is moving to a different location and simply wants a similar place to live in. Property swapping is also another way for investors or second home owners to move assets to different locations thereby spreading and reducing the risk.

The concept works as follows: I'll buy your house but only if you buy mine. It can also be viewed as two separate transactions taking place at the time where party A buys a house from party B, while party B buys the house from party A. The exchange takes place on the same date through what's called simultaneous closing. Both parties pay off any existing loans and obtain new financing on the home they are buying. The only complication is to schedule closing for party A and party B on the same date.

Yes. Many swaps take place behind the scenes daily. At least four cases have been widely covered by the local and national media and we know of one person who swapped three times and listed a few more of his properties for trade at GoSwap.org.

There are many. Just to mention a few:

1Save on commission and advertising fees. If you find a property match by owner, there is no commission due. Save thousands! GoSwap.org listings are freefor those who refer four friends to visit our site, otherwise the cost is $19 and your ad is good until sold or swapped.

2No more double mortgage payments since owners pay off mortgage on their existing home and obtain mortgage on the new home - all on the same day closing.

3Swapping homes also reduces moving hassles as it eliminates the need for storage of belongings while in the middle of finding a replacement place to live in. This concept works as simple as "I will buy your house if you buy mine" so owners simply move to their new homes after closing.

4No more dealing with renters when you have a home on the market that is not selling, while you already purchased your new home.

5No more trying to find a place to live short term while looking to buy your new home.

6Swapping homes makes it easier for borrowers to obtain financing on the next home. As long as a seller has a contract to sell his current home, banks will not count current current monthly payment against borrower's income during the loan qualification process on the new house the seller is trading for. Most homeowners with a home on the market have a tough time purchasing a new home before their current home is sold or at least under a contract. Swapping homes eliminates this problem all together because seller brings two contract to the loan officer: one where he/she is selling the current home, and another contract where he/she is a buyer of the new home.

7 Here are a few more benefits submitted by one of our users Val:
"Hi, I am interested in goswap rather than the standard approach to sales for a number of reasons.
1. cost of traditional sales is set up for a number of middlemen from inspectors to realtors to first make their cut, and they are not always, if at all, interested in what the buyer and seller may be attempting to make happen.
2. these are changing times and with the www super highway buyers and sellers can communicate honestly and clearly directly with each other.
3. my home is unique, cutting edge and most unusual, a buyer interested in solar, wind, alternative housing or financing would have options directly speaking with sellers, where a realtor, bank, inspector etc, get in the way of these discussions, personal inspections and financial options."

This is all possible as long as you find your acceptable match. Notice, we didn't say perfect, because things are rarely perfect in life.

A knowledgeable real estate lawyer is recommended to make sure the transaction is as smooth as possible. Real estate agents should only be used if they listed a property or found your exchange property, otherwise,  the lawyer, the mortgage company,  and the title company will handle the closing.

The costs are the same as one would incur when buying and selling a property because real estate exchange is simply selling your property and buying a new one on the same day. GoSwap.org does not charge any commission for exchanging real estate.

The short answer is yes, but let's first define equity.

Equity is the value of a property after deduction of loans against it.

So if John has a house recently appraised at $300,000 and his total obligations equal $300,000 then John officially has no equity. Believe it or not John can still swap his house for any house as long as John can come up with a down payment and qualify for a new loan for the house he is swapping for. Zero down payment loans from banks are vanishing as quickly as they appeared, so the only alternative way to obtain a no-down payment loan is by creating a second mortgage or by tapping into equity of another property.

Yes, the value is not relevant that much (unlike other real estate exchange sites tend to emphasize), but what's important is the ability of the buyer to obtain a new mortgage on a more expensive property. Again, we need to look at a swap transaction as two separate deals where you are first selling the property and then buying your next property. This is precisely why we created GoSwap.org as the most versatile platform where buyers and sellers are not limited by property types and their values. If everyone wanted to only swap even, then finding a match would in fact be like finding a needle in a haystag (as one close-minded realtor pointed out in TheStreet.com article on property swapping and probably regrets it by now). We encourage sellers to be open minded and list as many possible swap combinations as possible.

This is perhaps the ultimate scenario and was brought up to me as an example by an experienced swapper and I'm sure this can exist in real life.
Well, even this one can be done, although with some difficulties. Again, let's look at this example as two separate transactions.

Let's just take John from our example above with his $300K fully mortgaged home and Lisa with her $200K condo, no loans, so 100% equity. John would have to qualify for a new loan of $200K to purchase Lisa's condo (since he is downsizing qualifying may not be an issue). The initial $200 will come from Lisa since she is buying the house from John for this amount.
Somehow John has to come up with $100K to pay off the remaining balance on the residence he is selling. The $100K for John will have to come from sources outside of this home exchange, i.e. a savings account, HELOC (line of credit on another property), or the sale of another property.
Lisa's side of the equation is not as complex, but she needs to bring  $100K to the closing table to pay for John's more expensive house or obtain a new loan for this amount.