Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as Charles W. Chuck Bryant. This is stuff you should know. Um, Extreme Home Makeover Edition. Tip of the hat to you as well. Just gave you a literal tip of my cap. Yeah, you don't see people do that enough anymore. Tip of the hat, Tip of the hat to you. Top of the Day, Top of the Morning, Bluck of the Irish. Let's let's let's do this, okay, Chuck, Um, this is going to be one of the worst ones we've ever done. Now, it's gonna be so great. I don't think you're right. All right, we'll see. Um well, I guess we'll leave it to everyone to decide. Well, because then people say that was great, and people say it sucked. Yeah, whatever, and we'll be no, no further along than we are now. We have no idea. Yeah, it's just you and me and Jerry in a little tiny room and it were just completely isolated, totally out of touch with reality, complete so chuck, um, I guess we'll get this stinker started. Huh, that sounds good to me. Do you remember um? Back in two thousand and six, there was a twenty six year old guy from Montreal and named Kyle McDonald. I don't remember him, you will in a second. He did one of the coolest Internet undertakings of all time. Facebook, No, my Space, No, it's not a business. He started he had a red paper clip and he decided that he wanted to trade it until he got a house. That was great, it was awesome. Where did he end up? He ended up getting a house in a place called Kipling, Winnipeg. He really got a house. Yeah, in less than a year, and in fourteen trades, he went from a red paper clip to a pen that looked like a fish, so on and so forth until he ended up with He traded an afternoon with Alice Cooper or a kiss snow globe, and that's when everything opened up. Uh. Corbin Burnston from l A Law remember him. He turned out to be a huge collector of snow globes and he wanted the snow globe, so he offered trade the snow globe for a paid part in a movie he was directing, and the people of Kipling, Winnipeg said, that's it for us. We've been waiting, this is what we want. We will trade you a farmhouse in our city for that part in that Corbyn Burnson movie. Well, who like the mayor of that town, the town together. I'm sure led by the mayor, but the town got a part in the movie. I don't know. I don't know who got a part in the movie. The question didn't come up. Well, where it falls apart was the guy went to Kipling, he accepted the house because he wanted to make the trade, and he turned around and sold it. He's like, I'm not living here, you're kidding. I remember the people of of Kipling, saskatch I wanted, I say Winnipeg, I don't know, says catch a one. Um. They were not pleased. You know where it fell apart from me, Corbin Burnson, terrible, Corbin. If you're listening to this, I apologize for Chuck. I loved you in Major League. He was he was a spectacular jerk, but he wasn't over the top. He did he nailed it. Yeah, Um, Chuck, that guy swapped a red paper clip for a house but that is in no way, shape or form related to our topic today. How swapping that has the word swap in it. That's a nice lead in, Josh. House swapping is more like um, swinging, but with houses rather than spouses. Yes, Josh, it has actually been around since the mid nineteen fifties, and swinging it's been growing like crazy about travelers do this now and they say it's growing at about fift a year, which I mean, you do the math, buddy, In like six or eight years, looks like we'll I'll be house swapping okay, I want'll be saying hotels anymore. Um, I don't think that's true. I mean, yes, mathematically that does make sense. Um, But the the problem is people like me are kind of high strong. You wouldn't not be a good house swapper. No, it's not so much the person in my house. I generally trust people, you know, and I trust my instincts. I'm not gonna there's some some thrill kill colt who loves a good blood orgy is not going to I'm not gonna lend my house to some group like that, right, Um, But I wouldn't feel comfortable in someone else's house. Oh really, see that's probably the opposite of what most people's redicines has to do with. I think it goes both ways, man, Yeah, I like all swapping. Yeah, it goes both ways. And I can tell you the one that I would really really not feel comfortable with really is the hospitality exchange. Yeah. Let's let's go ahead and talk about the three ways that you can do this. And if you've seen the movie The Holiday, I have seen house swapping in action. Was Eva Mendez in there. She was not wait, Queen Latifa, she was not Oh I'm thinking of last Holiday. Yes, The Holiday starred Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet. She did not appear naked in this one. But the movie The Holiday and Jack Black and the very fetching Jude Law, Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslett swapped houses for holiday, and um, romantic high jinks ensued obviously with Cameron of course, with Jude Law and Kate wins It with Jack Black and l a to London or I'm sorry English country cottage type of thing. So that was house swapping in action, and what they did was called a traditional exchange. Yeah, and that's when you play your vacation at the same time and say I'll stay in your place, you stay in my place. Yes, there's also chuck that I think the trude was far and away the most common and frequent type and appealing because, um, you you all you have to do is own a house. That's it. Well, you own a house in a place where somebody would want to go. Yeah, there's there's different ways around that. If you're in Mobile, Alabama and you want to swap apartments with someone in New York, you might not get a lot of action. Maybe not, But what if the person in New York who's swapping has family and mobile funeral gotta go down a mobile But by god, I'm not going to spend a dime while I'm down there, how swapping it is, Yeah, I'm not gonna pay forty five dollars for that day's in you know, it's said. I was reading them one of the articles that this article on our site was based on, and um they made that point like, sure, if you live in in Manhattan or Rio, you're not gonna have any trouble whatsoever. But um, they said, you can still have a successful swap if you're able to convince somebody who has a house where you want to go of the in charms of Toledo or Tulsa. Then my hometown is an example. Well at the place you wouldn't want to go. Yeah, I think all you need to say is Tony Paco's and people would be all over it exactly clean or yeah. Um. So the traditional exchange is one. Non simultaneous swap is another. This is the rich person swap. You take it. Yes, when you have a like a vacation house and you don't necessarily have to plan your vacation with air as you can just say take my place in uh in Worcester and I'll take your place in Rio. Yes. Rio is the hot spot right now, is um. You could also do non non simultaneous swap where you maybe you're not at home and somebody's using your home but you're not using there's at the same time, but you're banking a credit to be able to use their's in the future. Oh, so I have business in Rio, so you can stay in my house in Atlanta and I'll take you up at a future date to stay at your house in Rio, exactly because my company's for me to go to Rio this time. So I don't have to worry about it, okay, um. And then there's the one that I would find extremely uncomfortable. Do people really do this, Yes they do, and I'll describe some of them momentarily. But the hospitality exchange, it doesn't matter whether I'm the host or the guest, I would feel really uncomfortable. Like my mom was always this very very generous person, and she always wanted to bring home like a single friend or something at the hospital she worked with for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and my sister where all my sister and I were always like, we don't know this person. Now our holiday is awkward. Like, yes, we're helping a stranger, but at what costs? You know? So I've always been like that. I've just I've never liked hanging out with people I didn't know on a really intimate Yeah, but I mean like, guy can hang out with anybody in a bar or whatever. If someone's houses in play or is the setting, it changes every thing. It's just uncomfortable for you. But I'll tell you who is into that, the two point two million members of surfing dot com. Oh those people. Yeah, So I don't even know if you said for sure, what a hospitality exchange is that's when you live with each other. Yeah, that's when you say you can come and stay in my place and while I'm here, be here too, and then I'll just come visit you someday while you're there and we'll just be uncomfortable. But what if they it doesn't go well in the first round and you hate each other. I don't know. I think it was it was free, so maybe you could send a friend, uh remer play like I don't like you, but I have a friend who would love you well. They do say, though, to be fair, that it's not necessarily like you're in a little one room apartment with these people. It works better if you have a large house with maybe a private guest house or some area where you don't have to necessarily be with each other all the time, So that makes a little more sense. Still, not into it if you are into sharing your town with strangers, like let's go see this or let's go to the world of coke right exactly If you can't possibly get to the world of coke often enough, hospitality swaps are the one for you. I love showing people Atlanta that I know. Yeah, that's one of my favorite things. Is to to delight people with the charms of my hometown, because there are many charms in Atlanta, but strangers. I mean, I feel was a friend of a friend that was a stranger, I would certainly do that too, but not I would never log on to a website and just say just come and visit me. I'll show you around Atlanta. All right. So we've clearly established now that hospitality exchanges are the worst idea ever devised by humankind, or that we're just two big jerks, one of the two. So let's stick to the traditional exchanges where you don't meet them, they don't meet you. You just use one another's houses. That's what how It wasn't that movie. So according to Um the Time article house swapping as well, written by a Russo, specifically Francine Russo, Um, most of the people about is an estimate, have already house swapped. So most people who are involved in house swapping I've done it before. They're usually professionals, business people, doctors. It's not a couchsurf situation. No. Again, there is CouchSurfing dot com, and I would advise people to go check that out if you're into hospitality exchanges. Either as a guest or host. Check out CouchSurfing dot com. It's pretty cool. Um. But with the traditional house swap, let's talk about the details, Chuck, Like, what are you going to do? Like, let's say you live in um, yes, and I live in Mobile, Alabama, and you're you have a dead relative in Mobile and have to go there. Well, I'm depressed all of a sudden. But what I would do is fight through that depression first, and then you and I would start exchanging emails with one another where we start to outline specifics of what this is going to entail. Because on the surface it seems easy, like, hey, you just swap houses, but there's a lot of you know, small details. You might have a car that you want to have use of, so what you know, you can use my car. You might have house plants or pets. You might have mail that you want picked up. You might have your refrigerator only opens if you if you hike up the left side first and pull the door open. There might be a little tricks to your house. You gotta jigger the dead bolt from the inside if you want to leave the house. So you gotta get all those little details out in the open, so you know what you're dealing with. You're also going to be leaving the keys of your car, the keys to your boat, the keys to your a t v s. Everything, Like you're giving these people your life. Um, if you are a friendly sort or a suspicious sort, and you have neighbors, friends and relatives that live in the area who will listen to your commands, you may command them to drop by and introduce themselves, maybe to act as tour guides, maybe to just say hi, maybe to just give even more advice find out if everything's going on, Like you were switching lives with people for a minute a week. Well, in the movie The Holiday, the reason that Cameron met Jude Law was because that was Kate Winslet's brother. Okay, so you are sort of switching lives. And the reason Jack Black was there because I think I can't remember, but it was Jack Black. He was there. He was the neighbor or something and he knew where somehow. So yeah, I was reading another article that this article was based on. I think it was in Budget Travel, um, and the woman who was talking about house swapping was saying that, Um, she she and her I think mother were staying in this Paris flat and they were living Francois life, like they were eating at his favorite beast rode down the street, and they were like fixing his leaky sink and talking to his neighbors outside, you know, his flat, that kind of stuff. So you can expect, like, if you're if you kind of keep to yourself, you're probably not gonna house swap in the first place. But if you if you're looking to come out of your shell trade houses with somebody, well, and they say, that's another great reason to do this, if you're if you want a more immersive, non touristy experience. I've never even rented an apartment from someone, but I'm keen to go to a foreign country and live in a neighborhood apartment rather than a hotel. Like I like hotels for a minute, but at at the hospitality, all the fakeness, it's all it's all rings faults to me. Oh, you're crazy all the way from me. It just is so fake to me. I I but you know it's fake. You know that people are paid to be nice too. It's not like I think that they actually like me or anything like that. I don't care, right I'm at the hotel. I don't share, no trust me. I love hotels a little bit because I didn't get to stay in them as a child. We didn't what we were poor teachers and we can't. That's funny that you bring up teachers, Chuck, because this whole thing, the whole thing was started in ninety three by a group of teachers who founded Inner Vack International Vacations so that they could cheaply swap or make sense rental places or they have to make ends. Me that that makes total sense. So that's where house swapping actually came from his teachers. I didn't know that. Now you do, Uh, what's another good reason to how swap? Josh? Or what's something you can do forget good reasons? What's something else you can do to be a good house swapper? What can you offer? Um? You would also, well, you want to treat this like it's you want to treat the other person's house like you are hoping they're treating your house. Well, yeah, right, So let's say you break a dish. You would leave a note and say I broke this dish, I'm very sorry. Here are all the pieces, but here's also money to write here's also money to replace it, and if it's more, let me know and I'll send you the difference or whatever. Or better yet, just replace something if if you can replace it. If you can't, sure, um you it's probably still a good idea to leave a note, unless it's just something that they're never gonna right exactly. Um. You will probably also want to restock the fridge when you leave. You want to clean up. Um, you want to If the car catches on fire, you're gonna want to pick up the phone and say your car is on fire. Yeah, a big, big oops. You should probably let them know. Um, And it's nice to leave a little parting gift, sure right. Um. You also uh want to take care of their pets if they've asked you to take care of their pets, bringing the mail. These kind of things are usually worked out ahead of time, though. Yeah, they say it's a good idea a lot of times to having a letter of agreement that's not a legal document, but it just kind of outlines expectations for each other because in the end, what you want is just a positive experience. You don't want to come home and say my plants are dead or my dog is uh dead. Gosh, if I wasn't gonna say that, I was gonna say hungry, but dead from hunger. Dead from hunger. Uh. So you want to have reasonable expectations, and apparently these uh websites who run these places say that it generally works out pretty well and the the biggest problems that usually have are differing expectations that aren't outlined really specifically, right, um, usually a differing expectation of or differing definition of cleanliness. Yeah, that's the same. You ever go on Yelp and read hotel recommendations, It's awful people are I mean, that's something's got to really be wrong with a hotel for me to to log into a website and complain. But you should see the stuff. People complain about the quality of the chocolate left on their pillow, and their expectations are so ramped up for some of these folks. It's just it's the same with hotels. Yeah, I just call those people hard to please, whether your house swapping or or just vacationing. But not only that, they like I would consider myself hard to please. But I don't see ever really going on to a site and posting a complaint it's more just like, well, you failed to please me, so I won't be back. But all that's going on in my head or I'm saying it to human, she's like, mm hmmm. I did do one Yelp post about a nameless restaurant here in Atlanta that served me a raw hamburger, like purple raw meat inside it was disgusting. Which one I'm not gonna tell you. I'll tell you after. And I did write a yelping for you, because all they basically did was say, oh, I'm really sorry that your burger would have killed you if you would have eaten it. Well, we won't charge you for it. And I said, oh, okay, how about like a three piece of cheese cake or something? And I complained in the name they they got in touch with me, though. The restaurant did from the Yelp review and said, we're so sorry, this is not our policy. Would like to offer you a gift card for an under cooked hamber It was only twenty five bucks. I thought was kind of lame. It was a nice place, oh was it. Okay you're eating hamburgers and five star restaurants now, well, but it was one of those you know, sixteen dollar hamburgers. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, um, Chuck, Josh. We talked about some common complaints. We also mentioned the letter of agreement, right, yes, not a legal contract. Like you said, there's a couple of points that most people would make on a letter of agreement. Um, it's where you're saying you do this, I'll do this, or I'm gonna do this, and you're not gonna do that, and you just have it spelled out so that everybody's on the same page. Right. So what are some of the points in the letters of agreement? William Sapphire would call them. Like a hotel, you would want to know like the phone and internet deal if if all of a sudden you have a big long distance spill. Um, you want to get that pre range ahead of time. Now that's covered. Uh. You want to outline who can stay there, just like a hotel. Hotels say you can't have twenty of your friends in a room, and you can say I don't want twenty of your friends in my house, right, especially if they're a thrill kill colt into blood orgies that yes. Uh. You also want to talk about what will happen if something is damaged or broken down. Do you want to know immediately? You do not want to know? You have them called Jack Black, the neighbor what sure? Um? And uh also that you want to disclose whether or not you have homeowners or renters or auto insurance. Yeah, because the cool thing is is you can let somebody take your car because as far as the um auto insurance companies concerned, that's your friend and your friends covered by your insurance. Well maybe not always right, Well, yeah, I think as long as you're covered, yeah, as long as you yeah, well, I think one article I read it didn't spell out car insurance, but it did say that a lot of insurance companies, if you're gonna do the house swap, you should check with your homeowners insurance and just make sure everything because some of them have little caveats. That is a great point. That is a very very good point. And you should probably also do that with your car insurance just to be safe. Right, um chuck gosh. So we mentioned inter back, right, that was the one that was that started all this in ninety three. There's also a place called home Link that's big, and then there's tons of other sites. I went on inter back today. They have this place at Table Mountains, South Africa, because it was one of the most beautiful homes I've ever seen in my entire life. Pool everything just mod really sweet house. So they do have cool houses and apparently they have about ten thousand listings. Are you gonna go there? No? Did you offer up your place? No? I was just checking it out, you know, I'm want to do um. But apparently everywhere from like Craigslist for free to like these high end sites that charge you about a hundred bucks to be a member to list your house. Yeah, you can. Like there's a whole subculture out there that we weren't aware of. I'm men look into this. Yeah, I don't think my house is. I guess if you were a big golf fan the East, like golf tournament is like right across the street. If you want to rent my house for the weekend, which is actually this weekend? Oh is it? Yeah? I got home yesterday in their cars everywhere and in yep piece from the suburbs, so in their cores like cans in my yard and talking about dirt the neighborhood was. I could see you with the shotgun being like get off a mile along YUPPI here. It's kind of fun, but it's also kind of annoying. I'm with you. Are you gonna sell anything? I may sell some parking spaces. Oh yeah, okay, but nobody marries No. No, that didn't work out. A couple of last things, real quick, chuck, Uh. Intuition is huge, huge. Uh. If you start to get the impression that you don't really feel comfortable with this person, the more you talk to him, that's that. And since their house swappers and you're doing this and you're they'll understand. Uh. If you kind of are on the fence, you can feel free to ask them for references. Apparently is fine, although I'd be like, no, that's why another reason you're not a good housewapper. Uh. And then, um, if somebody seems a little controlling, like here are exact details of what you have to do every moment you're at the house, they're probably not going to be real comfortable. They're being forced into this, possibly by a thrill kill cult that they're a member of. I think I'd be okay with it, okay, except for my animals. I would be a little suspicious to let the stranger take care of my animals. I would have to really know that they had dogs and cats and they knew how to do it. And Emily gets real specific with the directions for the animals, which is a good idea. Oh. Another thing you should do is take the things you're really really love and or maybe valuable and either put them in a friend's house or lock them in a room in your house, just to be safe. It's not necessarily even thievery. Just if you have a really expensive ose, don't leave it on your kitchen counter. And that's just dumb, agreed. Mistakes can happen. So that is the sound that officially ends house swapping forever for the rest of our lives, will never talk about it again. Thank you, Thank you for bearing with us this far. UM. Hats off to you, tip of the hat, Chuck, just did it. Um. If you want to learn more about how swapping why, there's nothing else to know UM, you can type in h O U, S, E, SPACE, S W, A, P, P I n G in the search bar at how stuff works dot com and UM that brings up, of course Facebook questions. How about a quick announcement, Josh, okay, it kept very quiet here A silence fell yeah. Uh, the co ED Decoperative for Education. Yes, our our beautiful friends, um, who took us to Guatemala. Indeed, they are having a fall fiesta here in Atlanta, and we want to give that a little pluggage. It is October twenty one. It is at the Metropolitan Club in Alpharetta, Georgia. Right and uh to seven, seven to ten pm. That's right. Twenty bucks to get in. But twenty bucks buys you food, wine, beer and entertainment. And by entertainment we mean Jerry won't be there. Jerry is going to be there in the flesh in her birthday suit. She'll be playing uh, drum solos. I'm not mistaken. I don't know if a room shot is a drum solo. Uh. And basically they're raising money for you know, they're awesome operation with like awesome prizes. You can win raffles, you can win a week long African Safari. Yes, sign brave stuff, which I know you would be into stuff, um and chuck. Just to give everybody quick rundown if you don't know who COED is, first of all, go listen to the two part Guatemala podcasts. Right, um. And they are a nonprofit that basically pulls together money to buy textbooks for schools in Guatemala, which in turn rent them and create the self sustaining system where every five years the schools have have saved enough money through these rental fees to buy new textbooks and much more. Yeah, and they do computer lives tune. It's just a really you and I thoroughly believe in this group, right, agreed, So we would encourage you, if you're in Atlanta to go to the fall Fest October twenty one and Alpharetta. And where can they get more? More information on the co ed site you think? If so, it's www dot co ed u see dot org. Right, you should go there anyway, c O E d U ce dot org concrete. Okay, so let's get to it. Yes, we're gonna cover a few of these real quick. Josh, I gave you a sheet there, right, Will you play along? Sean Ross hyphen favorite soda? Question Mark, what's your favorite soda? Oh Um, that's what I've been big on club soda lately, just playing club soda. They have it in the Brake croom now, the little Schwepps. I've just been drinking it in there. Remember we talked about in taste. We have taste buds for carbon dioxide. Yeah, yeah, yeah, my My carbon dioxide receptors are in heaven. I love that stuff too. I am not a big soda drinker, but I do love sun kissed and root beer, and I love Lacroix, which is the fizzy water with the natural flavoring. Very good, chuck, yes, excellent. Eric Sanchez says, would you fight a full three rounds against George Sampierre for ten thousand dollars? He's a UFC guy, don't. The question used to be would you get in a ring with Mike Tyson for ton thousand? Yeah, there's no way. This face is way too pretty for that. I don't. I just don't like pain, so no, thank you. Okay, answers that one. Uh, let's see Victoria Dugger. Their name sounds familiar if we is that Facebook buddy all the time, so it's like she might have been a New York person. Okay, Uh, well, hey, they're Victoria Dugger? Whose voice is that? Who introduces you on the podcast? Is that Jerry? It is not Jerry, It is roxand it is our head of the video department, Rock sand. She does a fine job and she's from North Carolina. People always say, what is that accent? It's a non regional dialect. Yes, it is studied in Roxanne. I went to high school with Zack Galafanakas. Yes, they know each other. It's small little tidbit there for you. Shannon Rink says, what do you see as the future of the podcast? You guys have been doing it for a couple of years. Now, do you see herself doing it for a few more years? God willing? Yeah, we were talking about how the magic has gone, but we're going to soldier on and make half good podcast. Oh. I think we both agreed to though that we love the podcast so much, even if bigger and better things are in our future, we would like to keep doing the podcast. Sure, but we'll see. Yeah, um, let's see we did this Shaun Ross's favorite soda one already? Yes? Uh. Jan Moffat asks do you use innuendo on purpose or is it just a consequence of talking about things like totem poles. I'd say both. Yeah, it depends. Like I think a lot of our humor is really accidental, but that just kind of makes it funnier. Don't you think it's also fairly scatological, and we do a good job at raining that in. Yeah. For example, you have in your signature of Pallas Nicolas. Actually his name is Nicolas. What has been the most difficult podcast to explain? I had a real hard time with the Sun podcast, as we all know. Wow, we did have a lot of trouble with the Sun, didn't we. That was I don't think that was a good one. It was UM large Hadron Collider for me. I think the one that I thought I was going to do well on but really didn't was UM Butterfly Wings Color Iridescence. That was so maddening. Do you have another one I do? Um is the in the Inevitable movie bio on Hippie Rob. Who do you think should play the lead? I never met the guy, so you tell me. I can't really envision anybody playing Hippie Rob, but Hippie Rob. So I think that if someone approached us to do a movie on Hippy Rob, we would have to launch like a national search for Rob, find him and pay him in like Milwaukee's Best Ice. It's funny that I don't know who he is, but I still have. You know, you get a mental picture when you hear about someone who you have who? I picture the guy in office space, the next door neighbor that had the big mullet and the big handlebar mustache. It's you're not too far off. Um. Rob was a little softer, a little more self aware than that guy. And with red hair. Oh really yeah, I just blew my mind. Yeah, reddish strawberry blonde hair and beard. Crazy. Uh. And I got one more? Um, I have one more. It's from Scott Fogg and he says American coke or Mexican coke. Definitely Mexican coke. I don't even drink coke, but when I see Mexican coke, I buy it because it's got a sugar. Yeah, the real deal. Yep. Um. If you want to ask us a question, you have to be our friend on Facebook. You have to go to facebook dot com slash stuff you should know. Uh. You can also follow us on Twitter. It's s y s K podcast. As always, you can send us an email at stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. Mm hmm. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on the How Stuff Works dot com home page, brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you

Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as Charles W. Chuck Bryant. This is stuff you should know. Um, Extreme Home Makeover Edition. Tip of the hat to you as well. Just gave you a literal tip of my cap. Yeah, you don't see people do that enough anymore. Tip of the hat, Tip of the hat to you. Top of the Day, Top of the Morning, Bluck of the Irish. Let's let's let's do this, okay, Chuck, Um, this is going to be one of the worst ones we've ever done. Now, it's gonna be so great. I don't think you're right. All right, we'll see. Um well, I guess we'll leave it to everyone to decide. Well, because then people say that was great, and people say it sucked. Yeah, whatever, and we'll be no, no further along than we are now. We have no idea. Yeah, it's just you and me and Jerry in a little tiny room and it were just completely isolated, totally out of touch with reality, complete so chuck, um, I guess we'll get this stinker started. Huh, that sounds good to me. Do you remember um? Back in two thousand and six, there was a twenty six year old guy from Montreal and named Kyle McDonald. I don't remember him, you will in a second. He did one of the coolest Internet undertakings of all time. Facebook, No, my Space, No, it's not a business. He started he had a red paper clip and he decided that he wanted to trade it until he got a house. That was great, it was awesome. Where did he end up? He ended up getting a house in a place called Kipling, Winnipeg. He really got a house. Yeah, in less than a year, and in fourteen trades, he went from a red paper clip to a pen that looked like a fish, so on and so forth until he ended up with He traded an afternoon with Alice Cooper or a kiss snow globe, and that's when everything opened up. Uh. Corbin Burnston from l A Law remember him. He turned out to be a huge collector of snow globes and he wanted the snow globe, so he offered trade the snow globe for a paid part in a movie he was directing, and the people of Kipling, Winnipeg said, that's it for us. We've been waiting, this is what we want. We will trade you a farmhouse in our city for that part in that Corbyn Burnson movie. Well, who like the mayor of that town, the town together. I'm sure led by the mayor, but the town got a part in the movie. I don't know. I don't know who got a part in the movie. The question didn't come up. Well, where it falls apart was the guy went to Kipling, he accepted the house because he wanted to make the trade, and he turned around and sold it. He's like, I'm not living here, you're kidding. I remember the people of of Kipling, saskatch I wanted, I say Winnipeg, I don't know, says catch a one. Um. They were not pleased. You know where it fell apart from me, Corbin Burnson, terrible, Corbin. If you're listening to this, I apologize for Chuck. I loved you in Major League. He was he was a spectacular jerk, but he wasn't over the top. He did he nailed it. Yeah, Um, Chuck, that guy swapped a red paper clip for a house but that is in no way, shape or form related to our topic today. How swapping that has the word swap in it. That's a nice lead in, Josh. House swapping is more like um, swinging, but with houses rather than spouses. Yes, Josh, it has actually been around since the mid nineteen fifties, and swinging it's been growing like crazy about travelers do this now and they say it's growing at about fift a year, which I mean, you do the math, buddy, In like six or eight years, looks like we'll I'll be house swapping okay, I want'll be saying hotels anymore. Um, I don't think that's true. I mean, yes, mathematically that does make sense. Um, But the the problem is people like me are kind of high strong. You wouldn't not be a good house swapper. No, it's not so much the person in my house. I generally trust people, you know, and I trust my instincts. I'm not gonna there's some some thrill kill colt who loves a good blood orgy is not going to I'm not gonna lend my house to some group like that, right, Um, But I wouldn't feel comfortable in someone else's house. Oh really, see that's probably the opposite of what most people's redicines has to do with. I think it goes both ways, man, Yeah, I like all swapping. Yeah, it goes both ways. And I can tell you the one that I would really really not feel comfortable with really is the hospitality exchange. Yeah. Let's let's go ahead and talk about the three ways that you can do this. And if you've seen the movie The Holiday, I have seen house swapping in action. Was Eva Mendez in there. She was not wait, Queen Latifa, she was not Oh I'm thinking of last Holiday. Yes, The Holiday starred Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet. She did not appear naked in this one. But the movie The Holiday and Jack Black and the very fetching Jude Law, Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslett swapped houses for holiday, and um, romantic high jinks ensued obviously with Cameron of course, with Jude Law and Kate wins It with Jack Black and l a to London or I'm sorry English country cottage type of thing. So that was house swapping in action, and what they did was called a traditional exchange. Yeah, and that's when you play your vacation at the same time and say I'll stay in your place, you stay in my place. Yes, there's also chuck that I think the trude was far and away the most common and frequent type and appealing because, um, you you all you have to do is own a house. That's it. Well, you own a house in a place where somebody would want to go. Yeah, there's there's different ways around that. If you're in Mobile, Alabama and you want to swap apartments with someone in New York, you might not get a lot of action. Maybe not, But what if the person in New York who's swapping has family and mobile funeral gotta go down a mobile But by god, I'm not going to spend a dime while I'm down there, how swapping it is, Yeah, I'm not gonna pay forty five dollars for that day's in you know, it's said. I was reading them one of the articles that this article on our site was based on, and um they made that point like, sure, if you live in in Manhattan or Rio, you're not gonna have any trouble whatsoever. But um, they said, you can still have a successful swap if you're able to convince somebody who has a house where you want to go of the in charms of Toledo or Tulsa. Then my hometown is an example. Well at the place you wouldn't want to go. Yeah, I think all you need to say is Tony Paco's and people would be all over it exactly clean or yeah. Um. So the traditional exchange is one. Non simultaneous swap is another. This is the rich person swap. You take it. Yes, when you have a like a vacation house and you don't necessarily have to plan your vacation with air as you can just say take my place in uh in Worcester and I'll take your place in Rio. Yes. Rio is the hot spot right now, is um. You could also do non non simultaneous swap where you maybe you're not at home and somebody's using your home but you're not using there's at the same time, but you're banking a credit to be able to use their's in the future. Oh, so I have business in Rio, so you can stay in my house in Atlanta and I'll take you up at a future date to stay at your house in Rio, exactly because my company's for me to go to Rio this time. So I don't have to worry about it, okay, um. And then there's the one that I would find extremely uncomfortable. Do people really do this, Yes they do, and I'll describe some of them momentarily. But the hospitality exchange, it doesn't matter whether I'm the host or the guest, I would feel really uncomfortable. Like my mom was always this very very generous person, and she always wanted to bring home like a single friend or something at the hospital she worked with for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and my sister where all my sister and I were always like, we don't know this person. Now our holiday is awkward. Like, yes, we're helping a stranger, but at what costs? You know? So I've always been like that. I've just I've never liked hanging out with people I didn't know on a really intimate Yeah, but I mean like, guy can hang out with anybody in a bar or whatever. If someone's houses in play or is the setting, it changes every thing. It's just uncomfortable for you. But I'll tell you who is into that, the two point two million members of surfing dot com. Oh those people. Yeah, So I don't even know if you said for sure, what a hospitality exchange is that's when you live with each other. Yeah, that's when you say you can come and stay in my place and while I'm here, be here too, and then I'll just come visit you someday while you're there and we'll just be uncomfortable. But what if they it doesn't go well in the first round and you hate each other. I don't know. I think it was it was free, so maybe you could send a friend, uh remer play like I don't like you, but I have a friend who would love you well. They do say, though, to be fair, that it's not necessarily like you're in a little one room apartment with these people. It works better if you have a large house with maybe a private guest house or some area where you don't have to necessarily be with each other all the time, So that makes a little more sense. Still, not into it if you are into sharing your town with strangers, like let's go see this or let's go to the world of coke right exactly If you can't possibly get to the world of coke often enough, hospitality swaps are the one for you. I love showing people Atlanta that I know. Yeah, that's one of my favorite things. Is to to delight people with the charms of my hometown, because there are many charms in Atlanta, but strangers. I mean, I feel was a friend of a friend that was a stranger, I would certainly do that too, but not I would never log on to a website and just say just come and visit me. I'll show you around Atlanta. All right. So we've clearly established now that hospitality exchanges are the worst idea ever devised by humankind, or that we're just two big jerks, one of the two. So let's stick to the traditional exchanges where you don't meet them, they don't meet you. You just use one another's houses. That's what how It wasn't that movie. So according to Um the Time article house swapping as well, written by a Russo, specifically Francine Russo, Um, most of the people about is an estimate, have already house swapped. So most people who are involved in house swapping I've done it before. They're usually professionals, business people, doctors. It's not a couchsurf situation. No. Again, there is CouchSurfing dot com, and I would advise people to go check that out if you're into hospitality exchanges. Either as a guest or host. Check out CouchSurfing dot com. It's pretty cool. Um. But with the traditional house swap, let's talk about the details, Chuck, Like, what are you going to do? Like, let's say you live in um, yes, and I live in Mobile, Alabama, and you're you have a dead relative in Mobile and have to go there. Well, I'm depressed all of a sudden. But what I would do is fight through that depression first, and then you and I would start exchanging emails with one another where we start to outline specifics of what this is going to entail. Because on the surface it seems easy, like, hey, you just swap houses, but there's a lot of you know, small details. You might have a car that you want to have use of, so what you know, you can use my car. You might have house plants or pets. You might have mail that you want picked up. You might have your refrigerator only opens if you if you hike up the left side first and pull the door open. There might be a little tricks to your house. You gotta jigger the dead bolt from the inside if you want to leave the house. So you gotta get all those little details out in the open, so you know what you're dealing with. You're also going to be leaving the keys of your car, the keys to your boat, the keys to your a t v s. Everything, Like you're giving these people your life. Um, if you are a friendly sort or a suspicious sort, and you have neighbors, friends and relatives that live in the area who will listen to your commands, you may command them to drop by and introduce themselves, maybe to act as tour guides, maybe to just say hi, maybe to just give even more advice find out if everything's going on, Like you were switching lives with people for a minute a week. Well, in the movie The Holiday, the reason that Cameron met Jude Law was because that was Kate Winslet's brother. Okay, so you are sort of switching lives. And the reason Jack Black was there because I think I can't remember, but it was Jack Black. He was there. He was the neighbor or something and he knew where somehow. So yeah, I was reading another article that this article was based on. I think it was in Budget Travel, um, and the woman who was talking about house swapping was saying that, Um, she she and her I think mother were staying in this Paris flat and they were living Francois life, like they were eating at his favorite beast rode down the street, and they were like fixing his leaky sink and talking to his neighbors outside, you know, his flat, that kind of stuff. So you can expect, like, if you're if you kind of keep to yourself, you're probably not gonna house swap in the first place. But if you if you're looking to come out of your shell trade houses with somebody, well, and they say, that's another great reason to do this, if you're if you want a more immersive, non touristy experience. I've never even rented an apartment from someone, but I'm keen to go to a foreign country and live in a neighborhood apartment rather than a hotel. Like I like hotels for a minute, but at at the hospitality, all the fakeness, it's all it's all rings faults to me. Oh, you're crazy all the way from me. It just is so fake to me. I I but you know it's fake. You know that people are paid to be nice too. It's not like I think that they actually like me or anything like that. I don't care, right I'm at the hotel. I don't share, no trust me. I love hotels a little bit because I didn't get to stay in them as a child. We didn't what we were poor teachers and we can't. That's funny that you bring up teachers, Chuck, because this whole thing, the whole thing was started in ninety three by a group of teachers who founded Inner Vack International Vacations so that they could cheaply swap or make sense rental places or they have to make ends. Me that that makes total sense. So that's where house swapping actually came from his teachers. I didn't know that. Now you do, Uh, what's another good reason to how swap? Josh? Or what's something you can do forget good reasons? What's something else you can do to be a good house swapper? What can you offer? Um? You would also, well, you want to treat this like it's you want to treat the other person's house like you are hoping they're treating your house. Well, yeah, right, So let's say you break a dish. You would leave a note and say I broke this dish, I'm very sorry. Here are all the pieces, but here's also money to write here's also money to replace it, and if it's more, let me know and I'll send you the difference or whatever. Or better yet, just replace something if if you can replace it. If you can't, sure, um you it's probably still a good idea to leave a note, unless it's just something that they're never gonna right exactly. Um. You will probably also want to restock the fridge when you leave. You want to clean up. Um, you want to If the car catches on fire, you're gonna want to pick up the phone and say your car is on fire. Yeah, a big, big oops. You should probably let them know. Um, And it's nice to leave a little parting gift, sure right. Um. You also uh want to take care of their pets if they've asked you to take care of their pets, bringing the mail. These kind of things are usually worked out ahead of time, though. Yeah, they say it's a good idea a lot of times to having a letter of agreement that's not a legal document, but it just kind of outlines expectations for each other because in the end, what you want is just a positive experience. You don't want to come home and say my plants are dead or my dog is uh dead. Gosh, if I wasn't gonna say that, I was gonna say hungry, but dead from hunger. Dead from hunger. Uh. So you want to have reasonable expectations, and apparently these uh websites who run these places say that it generally works out pretty well and the the biggest problems that usually have are differing expectations that aren't outlined really specifically, right, um, usually a differing expectation of or differing definition of cleanliness. Yeah, that's the same. You ever go on Yelp and read hotel recommendations, It's awful people are I mean, that's something's got to really be wrong with a hotel for me to to log into a website and complain. But you should see the stuff. People complain about the quality of the chocolate left on their pillow, and their expectations are so ramped up for some of these folks. It's just it's the same with hotels. Yeah, I just call those people hard to please, whether your house swapping or or just vacationing. But not only that, they like I would consider myself hard to please. But I don't see ever really going on to a site and posting a complaint it's more just like, well, you failed to please me, so I won't be back. But all that's going on in my head or I'm saying it to human, she's like, mm hmmm. I did do one Yelp post about a nameless restaurant here in Atlanta that served me a raw hamburger, like purple raw meat inside it was disgusting. Which one I'm not gonna tell you. I'll tell you after. And I did write a yelping for you, because all they basically did was say, oh, I'm really sorry that your burger would have killed you if you would have eaten it. Well, we won't charge you for it. And I said, oh, okay, how about like a three piece of cheese cake or something? And I complained in the name they they got in touch with me, though. The restaurant did from the Yelp review and said, we're so sorry, this is not our policy. Would like to offer you a gift card for an under cooked hamber It was only twenty five bucks. I thought was kind of lame. It was a nice place, oh was it. Okay you're eating hamburgers and five star restaurants now, well, but it was one of those you know, sixteen dollar hamburgers. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, um, Chuck, Josh. We talked about some common complaints. We also mentioned the letter of agreement, right, yes, not a legal contract. Like you said, there's a couple of points that most people would make on a letter of agreement. Um, it's where you're saying you do this, I'll do this, or I'm gonna do this, and you're not gonna do that, and you just have it spelled out so that everybody's on the same page. Right. So what are some of the points in the letters of agreement? William Sapphire would call them. Like a hotel, you would want to know like the phone and internet deal if if all of a sudden you have a big long distance spill. Um, you want to get that pre range ahead of time. Now that's covered. Uh. You want to outline who can stay there, just like a hotel. Hotels say you can't have twenty of your friends in a room, and you can say I don't want twenty of your friends in my house, right, especially if they're a thrill kill colt into blood orgies that yes. Uh. You also want to talk about what will happen if something is damaged or broken down. Do you want to know immediately? You do not want to know? You have them called Jack Black, the neighbor what sure? Um? And uh also that you want to disclose whether or not you have homeowners or renters or auto insurance. Yeah, because the cool thing is is you can let somebody take your car because as far as the um auto insurance companies concerned, that's your friend and your friends covered by your insurance. Well maybe not always right, Well, yeah, I think as long as you're covered, yeah, as long as you yeah, well, I think one article I read it didn't spell out car insurance, but it did say that a lot of insurance companies, if you're gonna do the house swap, you should check with your homeowners insurance and just make sure everything because some of them have little caveats. That is a great point. That is a very very good point. And you should probably also do that with your car insurance just to be safe. Right, um chuck gosh. So we mentioned inter back, right, that was the one that was that started all this in ninety three. There's also a place called home Link that's big, and then there's tons of other sites. I went on inter back today. They have this place at Table Mountains, South Africa, because it was one of the most beautiful homes I've ever seen in my entire life. Pool everything just mod really sweet house. So they do have cool houses and apparently they have about ten thousand listings. Are you gonna go there? No? Did you offer up your place? No? I was just checking it out, you know, I'm want to do um. But apparently everywhere from like Craigslist for free to like these high end sites that charge you about a hundred bucks to be a member to list your house. Yeah, you can. Like there's a whole subculture out there that we weren't aware of. I'm men look into this. Yeah, I don't think my house is. I guess if you were a big golf fan the East, like golf tournament is like right across the street. If you want to rent my house for the weekend, which is actually this weekend? Oh is it? Yeah? I got home yesterday in their cars everywhere and in yep piece from the suburbs, so in their cores like cans in my yard and talking about dirt the neighborhood was. I could see you with the shotgun being like get off a mile along YUPPI here. It's kind of fun, but it's also kind of annoying. I'm with you. Are you gonna sell anything? I may sell some parking spaces. Oh yeah, okay, but nobody marries No. No, that didn't work out. A couple of last things, real quick, chuck, Uh. Intuition is huge, huge. Uh. If you start to get the impression that you don't really feel comfortable with this person, the more you talk to him, that's that. And since their house swappers and you're doing this and you're they'll understand. Uh. If you kind of are on the fence, you can feel free to ask them for references. Apparently is fine, although I'd be like, no, that's why another reason you're not a good housewapper. Uh. And then, um, if somebody seems a little controlling, like here are exact details of what you have to do every moment you're at the house, they're probably not going to be real comfortable. They're being forced into this, possibly by a thrill kill cult that they're a member of. I think I'd be okay with it, okay, except for my animals. I would be a little suspicious to let the stranger take care of my animals. I would have to really know that they had dogs and cats and they knew how to do it. And Emily gets real specific with the directions for the animals, which is a good idea. Oh. Another thing you should do is take the things you're really really love and or maybe valuable and either put them in a friend's house or lock them in a room in your house, just to be safe. It's not necessarily even thievery. Just if you have a really expensive ose, don't leave it on your kitchen counter. And that's just dumb, agreed. Mistakes can happen. So that is the sound that officially ends house swapping forever for the rest of our lives, will never talk about it again. Thank you, Thank you for bearing with us this far. UM. Hats off to you, tip of the hat, Chuck, just did it. Um. If you want to learn more about how swapping why, there's nothing else to know UM, you can type in h O U, S, E, SPACE, S W, A, P, P I n G in the search bar at how stuff works dot com and UM that brings up, of course Facebook questions. How about a quick announcement, Josh, okay, it kept very quiet here A silence fell yeah. Uh, the co ED Decoperative for Education. Yes, our our beautiful friends, um, who took us to Guatemala. Indeed, they are having a fall fiesta here in Atlanta, and we want to give that a little pluggage. It is October twenty one. It is at the Metropolitan Club in Alpharetta, Georgia. Right and uh to seven, seven to ten pm. That's right. Twenty bucks to get in. But twenty bucks buys you food, wine, beer and entertainment. And by entertainment we mean Jerry won't be there. Jerry is going to be there in the flesh in her birthday suit. She'll be playing uh, drum solos. I'm not mistaken. I don't know if a room shot is a drum solo. Uh. And basically they're raising money for you know, they're awesome operation with like awesome prizes. You can win raffles, you can win a week long African Safari. Yes, sign brave stuff, which I know you would be into stuff, um and chuck. Just to give everybody quick rundown if you don't know who COED is, first of all, go listen to the two part Guatemala podcasts. Right, um. And they are a nonprofit that basically pulls together money to buy textbooks for schools in Guatemala, which in turn rent them and create the self sustaining system where every five years the schools have have saved enough money through these rental fees to buy new textbooks and much more. Yeah, and they do computer lives tune. It's just a really you and I thoroughly believe in this group, right, agreed, So we would encourage you, if you're in Atlanta to go to the fall Fest October twenty one and Alpharetta. And where can they get more? More information on the co ed site you think? If so, it's www dot co ed u see dot org. Right, you should go there anyway, c O E d U ce dot org concrete. Okay, so let's get to it. Yes, we're gonna cover a few of these real quick. Josh, I gave you a sheet there, right, Will you play along? Sean Ross hyphen favorite soda? Question Mark, what's your favorite soda? Oh Um, that's what I've been big on club soda lately, just playing club soda. They have it in the Brake croom now, the little Schwepps. I've just been drinking it in there. Remember we talked about in taste. We have taste buds for carbon dioxide. Yeah, yeah, yeah, my My carbon dioxide receptors are in heaven. I love that stuff too. I am not a big soda drinker, but I do love sun kissed and root beer, and I love Lacroix, which is the fizzy water with the natural flavoring. Very good, chuck, yes, excellent. Eric Sanchez says, would you fight a full three rounds against George Sampierre for ten thousand dollars? He's a UFC guy, don't. The question used to be would you get in a ring with Mike Tyson for ton thousand? Yeah, there's no way. This face is way too pretty for that. I don't. I just don't like pain, so no, thank you. Okay, answers that one. Uh, let's see Victoria Dugger. Their name sounds familiar if we is that Facebook buddy all the time, so it's like she might have been a New York person. Okay, Uh, well, hey, they're Victoria Dugger? Whose voice is that? Who introduces you on the podcast? Is that Jerry? It is not Jerry, It is roxand it is our head of the video department, Rock sand. She does a fine job and she's from North Carolina. People always say, what is that accent? It's a non regional dialect. Yes, it is studied in Roxanne. I went to high school with Zack Galafanakas. Yes, they know each other. It's small little tidbit there for you. Shannon Rink says, what do you see as the future of the podcast? You guys have been doing it for a couple of years. Now, do you see herself doing it for a few more years? God willing? Yeah, we were talking about how the magic has gone, but we're going to soldier on and make half good podcast. Oh. I think we both agreed to though that we love the podcast so much, even if bigger and better things are in our future, we would like to keep doing the podcast. Sure, but we'll see. Yeah, um, let's see we did this Shaun Ross's favorite soda one already? Yes? Uh. Jan Moffat asks do you use innuendo on purpose or is it just a consequence of talking about things like totem poles. I'd say both. Yeah, it depends. Like I think a lot of our humor is really accidental, but that just kind of makes it funnier. Don't you think it's also fairly scatological, and we do a good job at raining that in. Yeah. For example, you have in your signature of Pallas Nicolas. Actually his name is Nicolas. What has been the most difficult podcast to explain? I had a real hard time with the Sun podcast, as we all know. Wow, we did have a lot of trouble with the Sun, didn't we. That was I don't think that was a good one. It was UM large Hadron Collider for me. I think the one that I thought I was going to do well on but really didn't was UM Butterfly Wings Color Iridescence. That was so maddening. Do you have another one I do? Um is the in the Inevitable movie bio on Hippie Rob. Who do you think should play the lead? I never met the guy, so you tell me. I can't really envision anybody playing Hippie Rob, but Hippie Rob. So I think that if someone approached us to do a movie on Hippy Rob, we would have to launch like a national search for Rob, find him and pay him in like Milwaukee's Best Ice. It's funny that I don't know who he is, but I still have. You know, you get a mental picture when you hear about someone who you have who? I picture the guy in office space, the next door neighbor that had the big mullet and the big handlebar mustache. It's you're not too far off. Um. Rob was a little softer, a little more self aware than that guy. And with red hair. Oh really yeah, I just blew my mind. Yeah, reddish strawberry blonde hair and beard. Crazy. Uh. And I got one more? Um, I have one more. It's from Scott Fogg and he says American coke or Mexican coke. Definitely Mexican coke. I don't even drink coke, but when I see Mexican coke, I buy it because it's got a sugar. Yeah, the real deal. Yep. Um. If you want to ask us a question, you have to be our friend on Facebook. You have to go to facebook dot com slash stuff you should know. Uh. You can also follow us on Twitter. It's s y s K podcast. As always, you can send us an email at stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. Mm hmm. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on the How Stuff Works dot com home page, brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you