By Dan Polimino
I want to introduce you to my friends at a company called Third Home.
I think this is a terrific concept, and I want to tell everyone about it. Here’s how it works: Third Home is a home exchange platform. That’s right, you enroll your second home or your vacation home into the Third Home Program and as a result you get to stay in someone else’s home also on the platform. Let me give you an example to help illustrate the program.
Let’s say you own a beautiful home in Champions Ridge in the Mauna Lani Resort and you short term vacation rental it. Everyone knows you don’t book 100% of the weeks each year, so let’s say you make your home in Champions Ridge available on the Third Home exchange platform the last week in March. Upon enrolling, the folks at Third Home will evaluate your house based on beds, baths, size, location, furnishings, amenities, view, and price point. They will score your home based on a “keys” system like keys to open your front door. So, for this illustration let’s say homes from $1M to $2M are worth two keys; homes from $2M to $3M are three keys; homes from $3M to $4M are four keys; and homes $4 million and up are five keys. Your home in Champions Ridge is greater than $4 million and so you have scored 5 keys. Plus, you’re making your home available the last week of March, which is a prime time – spring break – in Hawai`i, so Third Home is going to score you with an additional four keys. All said and done, you now have 9 keys in your bank.
Some other Third Home member is browsing on the Third Home website looking for a place to stay in Hawai`i. He too has 9 keys in his Third Home bank, so he books your home for the last week in March. No money is exchanged between the parties and better, yet no TAXES are paid.
Sometime later you are looking to take a trip to Italy. You browse the Third Home platform and see there is a home available for your travel dates in Tuscany and it requires nine keys. You happen to have nine keys in your bank, so you book the home for your vacation. Again, no money or taxes are exchanged between the parties.
There are some transaction fees that apply to exchange homes with other homeowners. Those transaction fees range from $495-$1,395 per transaction or per exchange. This is how Third Home keeps the platform and the company running. There is also $295 in annual membership dues to be a part of the club.
The company has over 16,000 properties on the website for you to choose from. They also have 175 homes that are part of their Reserve Collection with homes that start at $8.5 million and higher.
Again, I just love this idea. The fact that you can travel all over the world and stay in fantastic homes without any real cost to you is incredible. All you must do is make your current vacation home available. The more keys you earn, the more places you can stay around the world. The best part is this program does not cannibalize your short-term vacation rental income. Again, this is because we know you’re not going to book all 52 weeks in short term vacation rental. There will be some weeks a year you can make your property available and exchange it with other homeowners.
If you’d like to hear more about Third Home or you’re considering signing up, please visit the custom page that my friends at Third Home created just for my clients. Here is the link: Third Home – The Hawaii Team.
If you’re already a member of Third Home, then please reach out to me via email because I would love to hear how your experience has been.
Dan Polimino is the owner of the Hawai`i Team in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i. He and his team are the luxury residential experts for the Big Island. If you are thinking about buying or selling in Hawai’i, then please reach out to us at team@thehawaiiteam.com or call 808-913-0899.