Keep in mind what is "regular" to you might be very special to someone from another area. It is important to understand that potential exchangers are usually looking for a base from which to explore an unfamilar country or area. Your home might offer surprising possibilities to someone from a different country or region.

The International Home Exchange Network allows non-members to respond to your listing. Other services only allow members of their service to reply to their listings. Therefore, respondants to your listing on their site would be extremely limited, whereas with our service your audience is in the millions.

True - you don't have to list your home to avail yourself of our services. However, this is not, as a rule, a good idea unless your are only window shopping. Without listing, others will not know of your potential interest and your home's features. You will receive no contacts from potential home exchangers greatly decreasing your opportunities for an exchange.

The answer is simple. The International Home Exchange Network was founded to provide a meeting place for potential home exchangers. We want you to arrange an exchange, therefore, we have structured our service to provide you with the very best opportunity for success.

Not only do we encourage you to add a picture to your listing, we allow you to add up to ten photos to your listing photo gallery with captions. You can use our convenient on-line photo upload form or if you need your photos scanned, you can mail them to us and we will scan them and add them to your listing.

The answer can be summed up in two words - time and money! We previously used a "book" company to arrange our exchanges. It was for this reason that we founded IHEN. We used to write 40-50 letters, spend $50.00-75.00 on postage; place expensive international long distance calls; and wait for weeks for replies, only to find many of the opportunities had been spoken for. With our service, you simply read the listing, click on the e-mail address, send a message to the lister and have a reply in a day - with no postage or phone charges. Follow-up and final arrangements are handled as simply and inexpensively.

Certainly, this is a very real fear. But, you should remember that most exchanges don't happen overnight. Through e-mail and follow up phone calls you will become familar with your exchange partners. Many of our members are experienced home exchangers, who can provide you with references from previous exchange partners.

A few years ago, there was a survey of 600 exchangers conducted to answer this question. In this study, 500 respondents reported that their exchange guests took "excellent" care of the home. 90 reported the care of their home as "very good" and only 10 reported "less than good" care was taken of their home.