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Strangers in the house: House swapping provides vacation opportunities for the adventurous - and those with faith in human nature.

It was a question that begged reckoning for Gloucester Point residents [Robert Priseler] and Noel Priseler, who recently returned from England where they took part in a house swap. The couple stayed four weeks in the Nottingham home of Alexander and Christine Miller while the U.K. couple vacationed at the Priseler's waterfront house. Their relationship was based entirely on e-mail correspondence.

Homeexchange.com will be featured in a Sony Pictures movie, "The Holiday," slated for winter release and fronted by A-list stars Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black and Jude Law. "I think this movie will do for home exchanges what 'You've Got Mail' did for Internet dating," [Ed Kushins] said.

Kushins believes in his product so enthusiastically that he offers his home in Hermosa Beach and a condo in Palm Desert for exchange. Kushins and his wife have taken their 8- and 11-year-old children on exchanges on both U.S. coasts as well as London, Ireland and Paris.

Would you let complete strangers - foreigners even - stay in your house, bathe in your tub, sleep in your bed and drive your car for weeks in your absence?

It was a question that begged reckoning for Gloucester Point residents Robert and Noel Priseler, who recently returned from England where they took part in a house swap. The couple stayed four weeks in the Nottingham home of Alexander and Christine Miller while the U.K. couple vacationed at the Priseler's waterfront house. Their relationship was based entirely on e-mail correspondence.

The retired couples connected as members of Seniors Home Exchange, an Internet-based home exchange club for travelers 50 or older. For those with a sense of adventure and, of course, faith in human nature, there are hundreds of networking sites, yet the practice remains largely unfamiliar.

Christine Miller said she had "huge reservations" about exchanging her home prior to the couple's first swap last year with an Australian couple.

"As soon as you walk into someone's home, you know immediately what type of people they are," she said of the relief she felt after arriving for vacations in Brisbane and Gloucester.

The Millers found an unexpected slice of southern living in Gloucester, where they dined with neighbors and attended a cocktail party. A neighbor couple took the Millers on a trip to Tangier Island.

Yet another took them on museum and boating outings.

After returning home, the Priselers said they were told the Miller's participated in a neighborhood beautification project planting colorful flowers alongside their American counterparts. "Everyone we've met here knows what southern hospitality is," Christine Miller said. "We haven't been disappointed."

The Priselers and Millers corresponded by e-mail for about six months before a deal was brokered to swap houses, they said. Both couples said taking time beforehand to explore each other's lifestyles was essential to a positive experience.

"If you have the crown jewels, don't leave them on the dresser," Robert Priseler said, adding that there were no problems with their exchange.

Generally, home swap club memberships include access to property listings and contact information for $50-70 a year. Some of the sites are family-friendly, while others are reserved for specific groups like retirees. Home swaps can be long term or as short as a weekend getaway.

"It's a great way to travel. You feel like someone is welcoming you into their house as a guest," said Ed Kushins, President of homeexchange. com. "The fun of it is stepping into the shoes of someone different."

Kushins, of Los Angeles, has more than 11,000 home listings on his site - mostly in the United States, France, Australia and England.

On there is a single listing in southeastern Virginia: the Williamsburg home of James and Pam Heaphey.

The Heapheys first heard of home exchange through a co-worker of Pam Heaphey's who made an exchange five years ago. The Heapheys visited England through an exchange that reduced costs by at least a third, James Heaphey said.

"You get to meet the friends of the host. They volunteer to take you around. We went to the best pubs, saw the Roman ruins," he said. "You're living in the community ... you see the complete contrasts in lifestyle."

Alexander Miller echoed those sentiments while enjoying the Priseler's sunroom: "If you stay in a hotel you meet people on holiday, just like us, but you wouldn't meet real people.

"We actually met real Americans," he continued. "We absolutely adore Virginia. It's been 10 times better than we expected."

Despite glowing reviews, the practice has been slow to catch on with many travelers. Kushins said the movement has gained momentum since the Internet became a mainstream marketing tool and device for social networking. But the practice still raises some eyebrows.

"We're on the edge of explosive growth," he said. "We're going to take home exchange to a whole new level of awareness."

Homeexchange.com will be featured in a Sony Pictures movie, "The Holiday," slated for winter release and fronted by A-list stars Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black and Jude Law. "I think this movie will do for home exchanges what 'You've Got Mail' did for Internet dating," Kushins said.

He predicted that much like the stigma Internet dating shrugged off in recent years, home exchanges will soon no longer be viewed as something "weird, an unsafe thing to do."

Two homeexchange.com memberships have been revoked, Kushins said. In the first instance, an exchange was canceled without a reasonable excuse.

"With the other people, it wasn't that they were deceitful, but they were really sort of slobs but they didn't realize it."

"It's a real opportunity for the kids to meet and play with kids in a foreign country or other place you haven't been," he said.

Credit: Daily Press, Newport News, Va.

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LIFE SWAPPING: Two women find themselves on a 'holiday' escape

Luckily, "The Holiday" is also about a lot of ultimates. Ultimately, it is a sweet romantic comedy that will win you over. Ultimately, the story finds a spark. Ultimately, [Nancy Meyers] will have her characters speak from the heart and not from a checklist of dialogue from the romantic comedy dictionary of phrases. And, ultimately, a film starring [Kate Winslet], Jude Law, Cameron Diaz and Jack Black is so nice to look at that it can't be all bad.

What are two broken-hearted women to do? Run away, of course. [Amanda] goes on the Internet looking for a quick getaway and immediately finds a Web site for home exchanges. That perfect little English cottage she spots looks like the ideal place to stay. The next day, [Iris] and Amanda are on flights to stay in each other's homes -- and lives -- for two weeks. It's culture shock for both of them. The difference is that Iris basks in the warm Los Angeles glow, while Amanda gives a cold shoulder to the idyllic English landscape.

Iris meets Miles (Black), a film composer who works with Amanda's ex-boyfriend. Like Iris, Miles is in a bad relationship that he fails to see for what it is (love is blind, after all). In the sweetest relationship in the movie, Iris also befriends a neighbor named Arthur (the wonderful Eli Wallach), who we learn is an award- winning screenwriter from Hollywood's Golden Era with plenty of wisdom to share.

'Apocalypto,' Tale of the Primitive Maya, Is Violent but Stunning Fable; Enough Gore to Last a Lifetime; 'Days of Glory' Is Fine War Film; 'Diamond'

The technique deployed in "Apocalypto" is elegant, though that shouldn't be surprising, given the superb craftsmanship of "The Passion of the Christ." Dean Semler's cinematography, Tom Sanders's production design, Roberto Bonelli's art direction, John Wright's editing, James Horner's music and Mayes C. Rubeo's costumes all illuminate the story of one man and his family trying to survive in the ghastly chaos of a pre-Columbian society that's grown rotten to the core. (If the screenplay, by Mr. [Mel Gibson] and Farhad Safinia, suggests that any other civilizations are rotting, it's as the writers intended.) In the department of razzling and dazzling, "Apocalypto" embraces an assortment of consecrated action tropes and reliable cliches dating back to the silent cinema -- brilliant chases, spectacular leaps and falls, a creepy seeress, women and children in constant jeopardy, waters rising, quicksand gurgling, lives saved by a solar eclipse, cliff-hangers on the edge of sandy cliffs. Due to the absence of ice floes off the Yucatan, there's no Mayan equivalent of Lillian Gish.

'DAYS OF GLORY" is the forgettable English title of "Indigenes," an unforgettable drama about Algerian soldiers fighting in the French army in World War II. (It's Algeria's Oscar entry for best foreign film, and would have my vote if I were an Academy member.) The French title translates to "natives," but with a strongly ironic connotation. The soldiers in question, dust-poor volunteers who had never set foot on French soil, fought valiantly to liberate the motherland from Nazi rule. Yet their fellow French soldiers called them "natives" or worse, used them as cannon fodder, and saw them as subhuman scum.

ONE BAD SIGN of many in Nancy Meyers's "The Holiday" is how much the movie's home-swapping women, played by Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz, talk to themselves. It's not that they're crazy, though both are improbably crazed by unrequited love (which, Lorenz Hart warned in a trenchant lyric, is a bore). It's that they're stuck with the movie's structure, which uses a home-exchange Web site to send Ms. Diaz's unhappy Amanda from California, where she produces movie trailers, to an empty cottage in the Cotswolds, and Ms. Winslet's unhappy Iris from England, where she writes for a newspaper, to an empty mansion in Los Angeles. Eventually both women find conversational partners, followed by happiness, but, here again, the story goes on at untoward length. In what was clearly designed to be a chick flick, the on-screen chicks work hard at being endearing, while Jude Law, as Amanda's more than conversational partner, charms everyone effortlessly and gets the best lines.

HOUSE SWAP

Home exchange programs let consumers switch homes for the duration of a vacation. The key to a successful home exchange is finding a person or family who wants to visit your city at the same time that you want to visit theirs. Marketing your home is the most important -- and difficult -- part of the task. To make the job easier, a number of subscription-based Web services provide a centralized place to meet potential swappers. Since it is impossible to predict how long it will take to find a perfect match, do not subscribe to a service too close to the time you plan to travel.

BUYING POWER

Home exchange programs allow you to see the world on a budget

If you've ever planned a vacation, you know costs can add up. But thanks to house exchange programs, you can subtract hundreds of dollars in hotel tees from the bottom line.

Home exchange programs let consumers switch homes for the duration of a vacation. Rather than paying for housing, you simply pay your mortgage as usual and the people you switch with do the same.

The key to a successful home exchange is finding a person or family who wants to visit your city at the same time that you want to visit theirs. Marketing your home is the most important-and difficult-part of the task. To make the job easier, J a number of subscription-based Web services provide a centralized place to meet potential swappers.

"We make sure that there is always a lively marketplace," says Ans Lammers, owner ofHomeForExchange.com. For a $40 to $80 annual membership fee, you can create a listing-similar to an advertisement you would use to sell your home-and contact other members with whom you're interested in trading.

But home exchange services only give you an audience; you're responsible for sealing the deal. Study real estate listings to get a good idea of what qualities to tout. "Be descriptive in your listing and make readers feel comfortable about you and your home and your neighborhood," says Ed Kushins, president of HomeExchange.com. Next, "post a lot of photos of your home." Highlight the most appealing features, such as the landscaping, the spacious rooms, or a luxurious kitchen or bathroom.

People who successfully find trades spend a lot of time contacting other members. "It's best to be active and send out a lot of offers," says Karl Costabel. the U.S. representative for HomeLink International (www.homelink.org).

Once you find a potential match, ask for references from other home-swappers if the person you're considering has swapped before, says Kushins. Likewise, have a set of references of your own to make the other party comfortable with you too.

Since a successful trade is contingent upon two parties having corresponding times and places to travel, home exchange services work best if you're open to traveling to one of several places. Since it's impossible to predict how long it will take to find a perfect match, don't subscribe to a service too close to the time you plan to travel. It may take a few months to find a good match.

There's no recourse to protect you if a swapper doesn't follow through, so plan for a successful trade by drawing up a contract, suggests Lammers. Specify who will pay for utilities, how the house will be kept, and any other concerns. Before making a swap, check your home insurance policy to make sure you're covered, says Debbie Pickford, a spokeswoman for Allstate Insurance Co.'s Capital Region. Finally, use common sense, says Kushins. "Take your jewelry and put it away, but there's no need to hide the china." -Tamara E. Holmes

A SAMPLING OF SERVICES

HomeForExchange.com

www.homeforexchange.com

Cost: $55 per year

This Website lets you see at a glance how many listings are available in select places. Advanced searching capabilities let you find listings based on select criteria.

HomeExchange.com

www.homeexchange. com

Cost: $59.95 per year

Offers a second year of membership free if you don't find a match during the first year.

HomeUnk International

www.homelink.org

Cost: $80 per year

Company has local offices in all the countries it services, giving subscribers an extra layer of support as they travel.

ExchangeHomes.i

http://exchangehomes. com

Cost: $39 per year

Also helps subscribers arrange home-sitting services.

Trading places: Site offers rental alternative

Julie Buchanan was always reluctant to rent her home to strangers on Bristol race weekends.

Now the Twin City native operates an Internet business designed to fill a unique niche in the race housing market.

Buchanan and her husband, Steven, operate HomefortheRaces.com, a home exchange Web site designed to connect people in other cities with homeowners in the Mountain Empire.

"I thought about [renting] for a long, long time, but I didn't like the idea of someone else deciding who came into my house," Buchanan said Tuesday.

Rather than pay rent, those who join the program are encouraged to establish relationships and exchange homes for a weekend, a week or longer.

"Rentals and lodging are so expensive. People are paying $800 to $1,200 for three or four days here," Buchanan said. "With home exchange, you only let people in your home that you want -- while you stay in their home. So there is mutual trust."

She envisions a network of race fans from Daytona to California eventually using the service, with many also using it for vacations.

"Maybe you exchange with someone in Myrtle Beach who comes here for the races, while you go there on vacation," she said. "And Bristol attracts fans from foreign countries. So people here could go to France or Finland and not have to pay for lodging."

Housing is an issue because major events at Bristol Motor Speedway attract 160,000 fans. Hotels from Knoxville to Roanoke are typically filled and as many as 90,000 fans stay at area campgrounds, Bristol Convention and Visitors Bureau officials say.

Hundreds of area homeowners use several local firms to rent rooms or entire homes to race fans.

"They're [fans] paying a lot of money to do that. Our listing is $59.95 a year, which is the average cost of one night in a hotel. And they can exchange as many times as they want," Buchanan said.

Speedway Vice President Kevin Triplett said he was unaware of the program, but had read about others.

"I think anytime we can expose this area to other people, it's a plus," Triplett said. "This is a creative way, by exchanging their homes, to visit somewhere else. It's a neat concept."

The site, which began operating in August, currently has about 30 members.

"We're trying to build a database, so we're offering free memberships to the first 100 members," she said. The site also offers a feedback system, so members can address concerns or provide praise.

Because exchanges are private dealings between those who join the program, Buchanan said she doesn't know if anyone has exchanged homes yet.

Taking Penny Stocks out of the Boiler Room; New service aims to make 'pink sheet' issues a bit less risky

The only time most investors hear about the "pink sheets" is when one of the penny stocks trading there is touted in a spam E-mail or the Securities and Exchange Commission snares another crook.

But R. Cromwell Coulson hopes to change that. He's already had some success. Ten years after he and a group of investors took over an aging stock listing publisher called the National Quotation Bureau, Coulson has turned the company-renamed Pink Sheets LLC after the color of the paper that was historically used-into the main electronic listing and quotation system for over-the-counter securities in America.

The Pink Sheets, of which some version has been around since 1904, exist as a sort of corporate United Nations, but without the clout or most of the "first world" membership. It is the last stop before circling the drain for many distressed companies, the first hop into legitimacy for many tiny start-ups, and the home to a slew of companies that either can't or won't list on a true exchange. In short, it is the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The trick now is for Coulson to show investors that there might be a few gems worth ferreting out of what is still-and often correctly-viewed as a perilous swamp. "Most people think 'pink sheets,' and they think crappy penny stocks," admits Coulson. "The value comes in separating out the companies that are worthy of investor consideration."

Taking a page from London's popular AIM stock market, Coulson in March created a new tier, called OTCQX, for Pink Sheets-traded companies that agree to file credible disclosures and appoint outside overseers-approved by Pink Sheets-to review them. Of the more than 8,000 companies listed on the Pink Sheets, only 11 have met the requirements and paid the fees to join the OTCQX ranks so far. But Coulson projects that more than 100 will do so by year-end.

Disclosure. In another move, all other Pink Sheet-listed companies are being shoehorned into new categories based on their level of disclosure to investors and the SEC. Companies that offer no disclosure will have a stop sign icon next to their symbols, while those believed to be sending out spam or engaging in other questionable promotions will have a skull and crossbones displayed next to theirs. It is a "buyer-beware flag," says Coulson.

Andrew Berger, who edits Walker's Manual of Unlisted Stocks and related publications, doesn't think Coulson's new rating system will keep investors safe from penny-stock scams. He says any investor who needs warning flags should probably not be investing in Pink Sheets-listed companies.

But some give Coulson high marks. "Coulson's done a great job of bringing the Pink Sheets into the modern era," says James Angel, a finance professor at Georgetown's business school. In the past, Angel notes, anyone wanting to trade a stock listed on the Pink Sheets would have to get a broker to find the best price from the few market makers who dealt in that security. By putting broker-deal quotes online, he says, Coulson has made the market "much more transparent and much more efficient."

Regulators are also generally pleased. "It's yet to be seen how effective these steps will be in deterring the bad guys, but they are steps in the right direction," says Walter Ricciardi, the SEC's deputy director of enforcement.

Still, it's unlikely that Coulson can tame the over-the-counter market or that all investors will heed the warnings he hopes to provide. "If you think of the New York Stock Exchange as the Cadillac of the markets and the Nasdaq as the Lexus, the Pink Sheets is the stuff that's left out on the street for people to pick up for free," explains Angel. "And in much the same way you can see somebody throw out something perfectly good on the street, you will also find a lot of junk out there as well."

Spamalot. The junk attracts the most attention. In March, the SEC moved to suspend trading in 35 Pink Sheets-listed companies whose stock price appeared to have been manipulated by touts sending out millions of E-mails with stock tips. Called Operation Spamalot, it reflects a new focus on stock spammers in the over-the-counter market, one that SEC officials say will continue.

The rise of the Internet means that stock touts no longer need a boiler room and cold calls. Stock spam can pump a stock faster and more cheaply, with one recent study noting that target stocks purchased before the spam started and sold during it averaged a nearly 6 percent return, often in just a few days. The investors who bought into the E-mail hype generally lost about that much. That doesn't stop them from sometimes trying to beat the scam. "But it's like playing against the house in the casino," says the SEC's John Polise, who specializes in micro-cap fraud. "You will lose."

The problem for Coulson is that well-publicized stock manipulations on the Pink Sheets obscure the fact that there are well-run and profitable companies listed there, often trading at large discounts to exchange-listed rivals. There are solid community banks that already follow stringent federal reporting requirements, large overseas companies like Nestlé and Wal-Mart de México that are comfortable with just being listed on their home exchanges, and promising small companies with real revenues that can't justify the regulatory costs of listing on a true exchange.

Yet such promising companies often trade next to OTC issues with less than $100,000 in annual sales, "zombie companies" that remain listed even though they aren't going concerns anymore, and shells that seem to be there only to lure unsuspecting investors.

The trick for investors is to be patient and do some sleuthing, says Berger of Walker's Manual. "There are many companies here that are as legitimate as they can be," he says, noting, for instance, that the 99-year-old maker of the Etch A Sketch, the Ohio Art Co., trades on the Pink Sheets. "You can sometimes find these companies trading at much more attractive valuations."

Not all investors think before they leap, of course. The lure of quick gains on a long shot is what will always attract many small investors to the Pink Sheets. It's "like the kiddie pool at the swim club," Angel says. "It's too small for the adults, but the little people have a great time."

Trading Places: Home Exchanges Can Make An Exotic Vacation Affordable

Some homeowners in Connecticut and thousands more across the country save thousands of dollars each year by house swapping.

In a practice also known as a home exchange, they are using their real estate -- a home, apartment or vacation cottage -- to swap for a similar property in another part of the country or the world.

The exchanges can be as brief as a weekend or as long as a year, but typically last one week to three weeks.

"It's as simple as 'You stay in my house while I stay in yours,'" said Ed Kushins, the founder of a website that helps facilitate the trades, www.homeexchange.com. "The site allows you to find one another, contact one another and make the exchange."

Valerie Erde and her family did just that.

About four years ago, she stumbled upon the idea and was intrigued by the thought of traveling across the globe to stay in a fully furnished home while someone else lived in her Greenwich house.

Since that time, the family has participated in weeklong house swaps in Ireland, Paris, California and Canada, and a weekend swap in Massachusetts -- without any mishaps.

She said she had no worries about having strangers living in her house, a 1926 Dutch Colonial with four bedrooms and three baths. And reports of problems with house swaps have been rare.

"People ask me that all the time. But we're kind of adventuresome and you have to remember, we are staying in their house, too," she said. "It is a mutual respect."

So, here's how it works:

There are a handful of websites that help home swappers hook up. After paying a registration fee -- usually $50 to $100 for a year's membership -- you list your home as well as the places you'd like to travel, and when.

Those familiar with home exchanges say swapping houses from a place like the Hartford area is more work than it is if you live in a major city, such as New York or Los Angeles, or in a poplar vacation area such as Orlando or seaside resorts. But it can be done.

"It is more difficult," Kushins said. "If you don't live in one of the highly recognized tourist areas, you may not get as many inquiries. People in Australia or Paris wouldn't think of going to Hartford because they've probably never heard of it.

"But our clients are responsive when they get inquiries from other people," he said.

"You just need to work a little harder to introduce them to the Hartford area, and sell them on the appeal and attractions. People do like to explore areas they haven't been before."

Nils Wessell is finding out how hard that can be.

Although he's never tried a house swap before, he listed his Mystic home for exchange for an entire semester, hoping to travel in Europe during an upcoming sabbatical. After three months on www.sabbaticalhomes.com, he'd received no responses.

"It seemed like a natural for professors to swap houses," said Wessell, a government professor at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

"I'm still waiting to see if anything pops up."

If successful, homeowners stand to save thousands of dollars over the course of a two-week vacation, with no hotel bill, possibly no car rental bill (cars can be swapped as well), and a lower food bill because you eat some of your meals at home.

That was a large part of the appeal for the Erde-Goodman family.

"You not only save money, but it's nice to have a kitchen and laundry, and a place where everyone has their own rooms to sleep in," she said.

Among Erde's recommendations for making a swap work?

Start searching the websites in January for the upcoming summer, as most swaps are firmed up by March.

Put everything in writing (boilerplate forms are online).

"And make sure you both leave a good guide to your home, where things are located and how they work," she said.

Credit: The Hartford Courant, Conn.

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