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               2008 January February April

This month Know Your Trade honors the oldest home exchange agency of them all, INTERVAC. Why has INTERVAC been able to survive since 1953 in the ever-changing home exchange market? Simple. Intervac maintains high standards that exemplify good home exchange practices, such as providing a secure means of communication between members so that personal information is not made public and an advanced map based search. INTERVAC is an international organization with representatives in 35 different countries. Standard methods are used around the world, but country representations are nationally-owned and operated. This accounts for its incredibly diverse membership numbers (over 8000). INTERVAC has received almost a perfect score in KYT's rating system and truly deserves to be awarded the Exchange Queen's Treasure of the Month award.

January 2008 Treasure IHEN

The Exchange Queen’s busy this month working on another huge project, so I get to choose the Treasure of the Month. International Home Exchange Network (IHEN.com) has long been one of my favorite home exchange agencies. When I first joined IHEN back in the mid nineties, I received dozens of exchange requests from around the world the first year. In ’98 Linda (who runs IHEN) contacted me to see if I was interested in being interviewed by the local NBC affiliate as an example of a seasoned exchanger (by that time I’d made about a dozen trades). My interview was picked up by several other NBC stations and I got my fifteen minutes of fame. The only disappointing part of the whole affair was that they edited out my plug for IHEN. I think it was because I said, “International house exchange network,” and then corrected myself. The camera is so unforgiving; I only hope you have forgiven me, Linda. I really did try to give my favorite home exchange club a big plug!

As you know, KYT doesn’t make specific recommendations, but from years of personal experience I can testify that IHEN has always delivered, never disappointed and well deserves KYT’s January Treasure of the Month award!

December 2007 Treasure HomeForExchange

The Exchange Queen and Know Your Trade are proud to announce our latest home exchange treasure - HomeForExchange.com. This home exchange club has recently introduced some new features not available anywhere else. The innovative home exchange contract offers members a digitally based agreement. To quote from HomeForExchange, “This contract is not just a plain document, but consist of a set of dynamic pages which you and your exchange partner can use to clearly set down what has been agreed upon. Once all pages have been completed the contract can be printed and digitally signed by both parties.” What a grand idea! In conjunction with this, this club also offers a first of its kind accommodation insurance policy. More details are available on the site.

HomeForExchange also offers a referral policy, a more than ample 16 picture limit and more than 10,000 listings. Our Treasure of the Month for December is truly a gem!

November 2007 Treasure HomeExchange.com

Our selection for the November Treasure of the Month can truly be called “a no brainer.” HomeExchange.com, founded in 1992, has consistently been at the top of KYT’s home exchange agency ratings. Hundreds of very flattering articles by some of the world’s most respected journalists have been written about them. Their management and staff have not only managed to deliver the most popular home exchange site on the internet, but are also highly respected and admired by other club owners and industry insiders alike. The only reason HomeExchange.com hasn’t won KYT’s Treasure of the month in the past is that we wanted to demonstrate the great diversity among the many clubs out there. So, for what it’s worth, KYT adds its small voice to the numerous accolades already showered on HomeExchange.com by awarding them our Thanksgiving Treasure of the Month.

October 2007 Treasure Geenee

This month’s home exchange treasure goes to Geenee. Geenee is one of the newer clubs, established in 2006. It has had a steady increase in membership, probably because it is still free and has some innovative features. Each listing has a map that allows the swapper to see the general neighborhood of the potential exchanger. In addition, Europe, Australasia and North America have map based searches that are quite specific in the more populated areas. Geenee also includes a peer reviewed rating system. Know Your Trade has selected Geenee as our top free club. With all its features(more than I have mentioned), it won’t be free long, so take advantage!

September 2007 Treasure 1st Home Exchange

For September, KYT’s Treasure of the Month award goes to one of the fastest growing Home Exchange clubs on the Internet, 1stHomeExchange. Founded in 2005, this site is continually being upgraded, with several nice enhancements to the site, including a new reverse search feature.1stHomeExchange is now available in both French and English. Another great feature is a tracking system in the member account area, which keeps tabs on offers made and received. They also offer an analysis of the member listing and make suggestions as to how to improve it. Other innovative features include:
    
    *Separate tabs feature on the detail page of the listing
    *A last update indicator on each listing
    *Active promotion of members’ offers in the sidebar throughout the site

We are proud to award 1stHomeExchange the Exchange Queen’s Treasure of the Month for September!

August 2007 Treasure Trade to Travel

This August, congratulations go to Trade To Travel, the winner of the Exchange Queen’s Treasure of the Month! Founded in 1991, TTT, as they call themselves on their drop dead gorgeous website (top site of our Beauty Contest winners), were the first of the luxury home exchange clubs. They also began the increasingly popular “points” system in the exchanger community as well as pioneering the second or vacation home concept. One of the many highlights of TTT’s agenda includes a $1.000.00 guarantee covering damage during an exchange. And, naturally concierge service is also part of their extraordinary program. Congratulations, once again, TTT!

July 2007 Treasure ExchangeHomes.com

Know Your Trade is proud to present our July Treasure of the Month to one of the “oldie-goldies” of the home exchange world, ExchangeHomes.com. ExchangeHomes.com has been in business since 1986 and continues to provide excellent customer support. Anne Pottinger, the founder, works hard to keep the site up to date. Her new blog, ExchangeHomesBlog.com is beautifully put together and chock full of timely information. A forum has also been recently launched.
ExchangeHomes.com is user friendly offering such amenities as a complete, printable Hints and Advice Book. Every listing has an expiration date, thus assuring that none are outdated.

Congratulations to ExchangeHomes.com for continuing to exemplify the ethical standards to which home exchange clubs aspire.

June 2007 Treasure Home For Swap

Congratulations to Home For Swap, Know Your Trade's top home exchange for June. When we first rated Home For Swap, we stated "It looks like Home For Swap is a site to watch!" and watch it we did! It has grown tremendously in the year or so that it has been in business. Features include a google map based search, one part of an advanced search with many other options. Home For Swap offers exchange ratings, video upload to advertise homes and more. Testimonials from members attest to our choice. Home For Swap is still free, but may be adding a fee in the near future.

May 2007 Treasure: Digsville

Treasure of the month time allows the exchange queen to take the time to smell the roses, in this case re-examine some of the home exchange gems. This month, we have had the pleasure of “re-discovering” Digsville. This club was one of the first clubs that we looked at when we first started Know Your Trade. We were impressed then and continue to be impressed now. Our ratings testify to that.

In a nutshell, these are some of the things we like about Digsville:

* Digsville is innovative. It was the first club to institute a peer to peer rating system which has now been implemented in several other clubs.
* Digsville offers every kind of help that a trader might need. From a Bill of Rights for exchangers to a robust Tips of the Trade, it’s all there.
* Digsville’s recently redesigned home page made a good club even better. The entire site is very easy to navigate.
* Helen Bergstein, the founder, works hard to further the home exchange movement.

We are proud to make Digsville our Treasure of the Month.

April 2007 Treasure Homelink

Know Your Trade has picked one of the largest clubs, HomeLink International as the club of the month. It has branches in 29 different countries, each with its own personality and features. Many of the features, such as text only versions of the site for vision impaired are outstanding. Member reviews on Know Your Trade have been exemplary. Always important is ease of making an exchange. Know Your Trade is a member of all the major as well as many of the smaller clubs, and by far the largest number of requests for trades have come from HomeLink members. What more could one ask?

March 2007 Treasure JewettStreet

This month’s award goes to one of the youngest and smallest home exchanges, JewettStreet.com. JewettStreet was founded in late 2006 and has, as of this writing, just 48 listings. But Ursula Godwin, the founder is doing everything right. The website is well laid out and attractive. Ursula works hard to promote her web site and the home exchange movement. She sends newsletters to members and is a continuing presence on blogs that mention home exchange. Unfortunately, Ursula has had to cope with her url being highjacked, which is a shame so early in the game (or any time for that matter). However, she has not let that stop her and continues to plug away. Congratulations to JewettStreet.com - the Exchange Queen’s Treasure of the Month.

February 2007 Treasure Home Base Holidays

Know Your Trade is proud to announce the first winner of the coveted Treasure of the Month Award, Home Base Holidays. How did Home Base Holidays come to be deserving of this honor? Although by no means the biggest, it does offer several oustanding features:

* Lois Sealey has a wonderful blog, one of the best in the industry, which often features member listings. In addition, she publishes a bi-monthly newsletter.
* Several of the members have rated the club on KYT and all have given it rave reviews, especially for help given to members.
* Lois Sealey, the founder of the exchange club is always on top of all the news in the home exchange world. Every time there is an article or blog on home exchange and I comment on it, Lois is usually there first!
* All listings on Home Base Holidays are guaranteed to be up to date as it is one of the few clubs that shows both the membership date and the expiration date.
* The cute little icons tell you right away about the home. Is it a second home? Do they welcome kids? Is there disabled access? These and other icons are quick and easy ways to get an overview of listing.

Congratulations to Home Base Holidays from all of us at KYT