How to do house swap accommodation New York Sydney style.

January 1, 2019 2:46 AM

We have an outrageous dream and are completely unsure if it's feasible. We want to spend two months in New York. Is a house swap the best idea ?

We have a three bed home near the heart of Sydney and lots of universities. We figured the best $$$ solution is to swap it with someone who lives in New York for December 2019-January 2020 in order for our kiddoes to sufficiently top up their language, culture, religion and cuddles till we can see Grandma again or Australia starts being humane. This is the Australian summer holidays and least academically disruptive to Mid Taff. High school. Sigh.

(MrTaff and Mid and Mini Taff haven't seen Grandma in five years. Because refugee reasons. )

We have pretty much no budget (public servant and NFP worker) but MrTaff has plenty of paid long service leave so we just need to source accommodation within reasonable public transport travelling distance of Queens (where Momo lives with her daughter and tiny NieceTaff.) A swap would mean we only need to find air fares.

Although we are unsure if a house swap is the best idea, we once did Sabbatical Homes but I can't find anyone interested in Sydney who's in New York, and 6-8 week rentals in Sydney aren't really a thing.

So we need advice from anyone who has tried this or has a contact (or needs pet sitting!) as we start to explore if we can do this and how. Or if one kid just flies over solo.

I'm sure there are many more considerations so any and all advice to help us reunite the kids with Momo in New York for Christmas 2019 would really be appreciated. I don't think I can bear for them to miss another one with her but we're also aware this may just not be possible.

All advice and suggestions are sought. But please be gentle, this isn't a trivial thing for our family however ludicrous it seems.

Also. Happy new year possums.

posted by taff to Travel & Transportation around The Rocks, Australia (6 answers total)

I know people who might be interested if the USA summer rather than Christmas would work. (All the people I know in NY are academics and have too short a teaching break over Christmas to make this feasible.)

I know you specified Christmas, but if you don't figure out a way to make that happen and August ends up being a possibility instead, get back to me.
posted by lollusc at 3:48 AM on January 1, 2019

Doing an exchange probably is the best way to go! We use homeexchange.com and have always had wonderful experiences. Once you sign up, you can browse based upon who is looking to come to Australia.
posted by fso at 5:01 AM on January 1, 2019

I'd try Sabbatical Homes again -- not necessarily to do a swap (though no harm posting one) but also just to rent out your place for the summer and then separately rent out a place in NYC. That sounds complicated, but we've done this before on that site and it's worked out surprisingly well. I don't think this is an impossible dream at all.
posted by heavenknows at 5:40 AM on January 1, 2019

If only I lived in New York ... When my kid was young, we traded our apartment in central Stockholm for a home in Berkeley, California for three weeks. Your idea is not crazy, you simply need to find another family that wants what you want and happens to be in New York. I can't recall if we used Craigslist or HomeExchange but it worked for us. Good luck!
posted by Bella Donna at 11:24 AM on January 1, 2019

Memail me!
posted by jcrcarter at 2:31 PM on January 1, 2019

You might also look for an "active retiree" type forum. I have no idea if that exists, but my recently retired parents would jump at the option to spend two months in Sydney. They don't live near NYC, but I'm sure there are similar folk in New York or Long Island who would be up for something like this.
posted by basalganglia at 5:00 AM on January 2, 2019