Rentals and Swappings

As some of you may know I am fortunate enough to have a second home in Costa Rica. Up to this point we have pretty much kept it for ourselves. Now, though, my husband would like to see it rented out so that it could help pay the expenses of the property.
For his birthday present he asked that I spend some time (and money) listing the house on various web-sites. The first site I chose was Vacations Rentals By Owner. We had read good reviews of other people's experience in getting rentals so I thought I would try it.

To see the VRBO listing click here


The second site I chose was HomeExchange.com. This site lists homes which people are willing to swap to stay in your home. For example, I have a place in Costa Rica and I want to visit Mexico. I can go on the site, look up homes in Mexico and offer an exchange to that property's home owner.

To see the Homeexchange listing click here
Within 48 hours of listng our home we were offered 12 exchanges and 2 rental opportunities. Unbelievable results.

We had a request from 2 people in Australia (my husband's dream destination), 2 in Napa Valley, 1 in Brittany, France, several in Quebec, Canada, A few locations in the US (including Lake Tahoe, Tucson and upstate NY)and my personal favorite- Mexico.

You would think I would be rather pleased with the results. Actually I am...
HOWEVER, the day after I listed these and the day after I had spent over 400.00 to sign up for these sites, we got a call from a real estate agent in Costa Rica who said that they found someone who would like to rent our house for a year. A FULL YEAR!
What kind of timing is that? Couldn't he have called the day BEFORE I spent this money? I suppose I could try to put some of these interested parties off until 2010.
Oh, and if anyone would like to swap or rent let me know. Plan ahead for 2010 though.