The info. posted here yesterday on a new home exchange missed one feature of the service: It's for exchanges in the USA (incl. Hawaii), Mexico and Hawaii only. It's good if you want to exchange homes in No. America and don't want to spend all your time looking through lists of houses in other countries. Most other exchanges are international. This one's free too. It's http://www.exchangehomesoia.com

That's great. I'd love to do an exchange with someone in Nantucket, Hawaii or just about anywhere on the ocean. The problem is, I don't think I'll get many takers on a house in suburban CT!

Zel, as I explained yesterday, the large, established home-exchange organizations have web sites that provide user-friendly search engines that allow you to generate lists of homes that are not only in specific countries, but also specific states, etc.

The notion that international home-exchange sites force one to "look through lists of houses in other countires" is a falsehood found only on OIA's site.

There are other sites that are free, such as www.homeexchange.com. OIA has a few dozen homes, if that, compared to literally thousands in the more established sites.

Last year, I used HomeLink, which is at www.swapnow.com, which has over 800 US members, including dozens of members in Hawaii, as opposed to OIA, which currently has literally ONE listing in Hawaii.

Why would anybody want to go with a tiny new exchange company when there are big established ones? Especially a tiny new one that either doesn't understand how the other ones work, or doesn't mind lying about them.

Will definitely check out the free home exchanges Ellen mentions...as long as they're easy to use and get you where you want to go fast.

Zel, I don't want to mislead you, HomeLink isn't free. But sometimes, even on the internet, you get what you pay for. HomeLink is well-managed and I'm willing to pay the annual fee (I think it was $50) to get a free place to stay! There's a reason that HomeLink has more members than any other site.

Not sure what you mean by "get you where you want to go fast." Do you mean within the web site, or do you mean finding an exchange quickly? The sites I mentioned are "fast" in the internet sense, but finding a good home exchange does take time and effort, no matter which site you use. There's a lot of back-and-forth correspondence in building a good exchange. It's not like booking a hotel room.

Ellen: Will check your recommended site out, as well as look for the freebies. Thanks for the info.

it "missed one feature of the service"??? Excuse me, but that was made very clear in the post yesterday and nothing has changed by today. Why are you repeating this advertisement? Weren't you slammed enough yesterday by the people explaining why they wouldn't touch this new company? Let us know about it after it has been around a year or two and has lists of happy users. I still fail to see what it offers than the more famous and reputable places don't.

Ellen: I checked out the homeexchange.com site but they're charging. I know you get what you pay for (in most cases), but I'm reluctant to pay for anything on the Internet. I've been burned a couple of times. Any other suggestions for exchanges that aren't charging? Thanks!