Planning Our First Exchange on Kiawah Island, South Carolina

One of the 5 golf courses on Kiawah Island

After several months of looking through the Homeexchange.com web site and having received exchange requests from around the globe, I was now ready to attempt our first exchange.  Friends of ours who had recently returned from South Carolina raving about the hauntingly beautiful Kiawah Island, located a short drive from historical Charleston, thought we would enjoy it because of Mark’s love of golf and the five outstanding Kiawah Island golf courses, as well as the ten miles of wide, immaculate ocean beaches just waiting for me to enjoy.

Beautiful Kiawah Island Beach and Boardwalk

There were many homes offered for exchange in Kiawah so I  had to decide how to narrow my search down, and to whom to send out email exchange requests.  For our first home exchange I decided to attempt to exchange with a fellow second home owner, which I felt would be easier than exchanging with a primary home owner.

When deciding to join the world of home exchanging one needs to be aware of the two different types of exchanges and the pros and cons of each:

• Primary home exchanges, where either one, or both exchange properties are a primary home need to be coordinated to either occur at the same mutually agreed upon dates, or when one of the parties plans on being somewhere else at the requested date.  To exchange a primary home, a small amount of room needs to be made in each bedroom for guest clothing in the closets and dressers, as well as in all bathrooms, and please be sure to remove all personal items from the bathrooms and clean out the refrigerator before you leave.  The home should also be professionally cleaned before your guests arrive, which is standard procedure for second home owners, but not something primary home owners may think of doing.  (you’ll hear about our experience with a dirty home on a later posting)
• Second home exchanges, which are the easiest to make because they are not the primary homes of either party and are usually available for the dates requested, are however sometimes also used as vacation rental homes.  If they are used as rentals this may make  it a little more difficult in getting the preferred exchange date, and if rented frequently the home may not always be in the best of shape. Try to find out how often the home is usually rented, and be sure to request more pictures to view the condition if there are not enough posted on the web site.

Over the last five years we have exchanged for both primary and secondary homes, finding most of the secondary homes the more desirable.  However,  secondary homes have not always been available for the location or dates we required, thus requiring us to do three exchanges of primary homes.  For our first exchange I decided that I would like to look for a second home like ours which was not used as a rental property.  Fortunately,  most of the resort community of Kiawah Island is comprised of vacation homes, so I had many properties to choose from, and sent out several of these emails requesting an exchange.

"Hello,


I am wondering if you would be interested in exchanging for our 3 bedroom 3 1/2 bath ocean view condo in Costa Rica.  We would like to visit Kiawah Island next Sept. or Oct.  The exchange need not be simultaneous as this is our second home and we do not rent it out, so it is available most of the time.
Shelley"

Within a matter of days I received two letters of interest, but this is the letter I chose to respond to because of the pictures and information provided on the listing.

Kiawah Island Back Yard with Hammock

            

Kiawah Island Living Room

Kiawah Island Kitchen

Dear Shelley,


Thanks for your inquiry and I would like to work something out on an exchange.  I have been to Costa Rica before and love the country.  My son and I went on a fishing trip a few years ago and stayed in Jaco. We have a very nice second home on Kiawah that we do not rent either. October is probably a better time to visit Kiawah since the weather is a little cooler and much of hurricane season is past.  Please let me know how long of an exchange you are interested in and how many people will be in your party.


 Regards,
 Ed

Ed wanted to return to Costa Rica, taking his wife and daughters with him this time to experience the beauty and adventure Costa Rica had to offer and was excited to make this trade work as well.   All that needed to be done now was to work out the details.  Because this was a large trip for both parties and it being my first exchange experience and Ed’s second one we sent several emails back and forth getting to know each other and the homes which we were offering for exchange.  Eventually we spoke on the phone, and by doing so I became confident that Ed and his family would enjoy our tropical condo at Reserva Conchal, and that his large southern home located on the Cougar Point Golf Course of Kiawah would be perfect for us as well.  It was now October, 2007 and we were looking to go to South Carolina in September or October of 2008.  We wanted to make this stay the culmination of an east coast trip we were planning, starting up in New England, catching the glorious displays of fall colors I had always wanted to view and then flying down to Kiawah, where we would stay for a relaxing seven nights, golfing, riding bikes on the beach, enjoying the still warm ocean water of South Carolina, and exploring the history and beauty of the city of Charleston. Ed and his family wished to travel to Costa Rica in July or August of 2008 before his youngest daughter headed off to college.  The trade was finalized and now I was left waiting for the fall to arrive while planning all the other details of the rest of the trip, eventually arriving at Ed’s front door on Kiawah Island.

 On July 24, 2008, Ed, his wife, and their three adult children headed off for ten days in sunny Costa Rica where all went well for them, and I was told that it was one of their most memorable family vacations.  They were able to enjoy the tropical rainy season of Guanacaste with all the green foliage and vivid colors while only having to deal with a couple hours of rain showers for a few days.  The humidity then didn’t bother them, because after all, they were from South Carolina.  Now we were looking forward to our stay at their home on October 19, where we were hoping to experience some outstanding golf and southern hospitality, but on August 26 I had to send this email to Ed, and received the response from him:

Hi Ed,
We have had a major change of plans for our trip this fall.  Our daughter just found out that she is going to be playing professional waterpolo in Spain this year and we have decided that instead of traveling to the East Coast we are going to travel to Madrid to see her play there.   We would very much like to take a rain check on our plans to Kiawah for perhaps next fall.  We were so looking forward to our trip, but feel that traveling to Spain is something we should not miss out on at this time.  If it is all right with you I will contact you next year and see what we can set up at that time.  Thanks for your understanding.
Shelley


Hi Shelley,
Congratulations to your daughter and we certainly understand your decision. We can work out your visit to Kiawah at a later date.  Stay in touch and enjoy your time in Spain.
Regards,
Ed   

So our first exchange was now delayed for a year, and our flight to Boston was immediately exchanged for a flight to Madrid.  Ole!  Now the challenge became to see if I would be able to find an exchange property in Spain.

Architect's impressively beautiful one bedroom apartment Located in an 1850s building on a central, historic street. 4th floor, wooden recovered structure, modern design kitchen and bathrooms, balconies with French doors five Facing South, operating chimney fire, old fashioned elevator, etc. In the heart of Historic Madrid (Conde de Xiquena Street) A place with superb Vibrations and a perfect hub to discover Spain: Toledo, Seville, Granada, Barcelona, Bilbao.

Historic Madrid 

This sounded perfect, so I sent an exchange request off, but unfortunately this architect was not as excited as Ed was to travel to Costa Rica.  After additional attempts at exchanges with both a charming two bedroom apartment near Plaza Mayor on Cava Baja Street, and a modern loft in Barrio De Salamanca, I realized that one month just wasn’t enough time to put together an exchange to Europe,  and resigned myself to having to stay in hotels while visiting our daughter in Spain.  

Even though the hotels we eventually booked in Madrid, Sevilla, Cordoba and Granada were lovely, we wished that we had been able to experience living in historic Madrid in the 1850s apartment on Conde de Xiquena Street, old fashioned  elevator and all, where we could have strolled the streets late into the evenings with all of the locals, returning to our cozy apartment where we may have been serenaded by musicians playing in the plaza while looking down from our balcony upon the Madrilenos who never to seem to go to bed.

The Reason For Our Trip To Madrid - The Latina Waterpolo Team

A Toast To The Latinas!

Strange coincidences do happen!  In August of 2009, our daughter who had returned from Madrid in May decided to move to Charleston, South Carolina.   She had decided that she wished to apply to medical schools and was going to take a year of additional premed classes at the College of Charleston in order to have the classes required for medical school admission.  We now had another reason to finally get to Kiawah, and immediately emailed Ed to see if his home would be available to us in October, receiving this gracious note in reply.

Shelley,
No worries.  The weather is normally very nice that time of year; except for those pesky hurricanes that come along every so often.  Hopefully, you will not have to deal with that.  Thus far, it has been a quiet year in the Atlantic & Caribbean.

I had planned on meeting you and your husband upon arrival and showing you the house but I am not going to be able to do that.  We are going to be in Germany and will not return to the states until after you arrive. I may have one of my children meet ya'll and give you the quick tour.

I will get directions, passes, keys, etc. to you later but rest assured there will be no problem with the arrangements.  Let me know if you need anything in the interim.
Regards,
Ed
             
Even though I had not been in touch with Ed for over a year I felt like he was an old friend when I received this warm reply from him, and proceeded to book tickets to Charleston once again. This time it would be a short trip to only Charleston and Kiawah Island for eleven nights so that we could spend most of time our time with Whitney, who was now living in the town of Mt. Pleasant, about a 45 minute drive from Kiawah, as well as squeeze in some golf, beach time, and touring the charming city of Charleston and the surrounding area.

Stay tuned for our experiences in South Carolina and what it takes to make a great exchange.