CLEVELAND — Dawn Marshman knew taking the new job in Cleveland was a no-brainer.

What was heartbreaking for this newlywed was leaving behind the first home she’d ever purchased.

“We loved the house and had done just about everything we needed to do get it to where we wanted it to be,” Marshman said.

She and her husband, Charles Kutan, bought the house shortly after they were married. They’d been there about a year-and-a-half. The pair knew they faced an uphill battle as they listed it.

It was 2008 and the housing market was in turmoil. “We came up here a few weekends in a row to look at duplexes,” Kutan said.

Even as they were about to sign the papers to make a lease official, Marshman wasn’t satisfied. “I wasn’t even looking for house swapping. It just happened to be an option on Craigslist,” Marshman said.

“I honestly clicked on it by chance and there were really only like three listings and it said West Toledo house for West Cleveland house and I was like ‘wow,’ This really can’t be an option, right?”

“Right away she said, ‘should we pursue this? Should we follow up?'”

“We had nothing to lose at that point so I shot an email to our fellow swappers and they replied to us that night, right away,” Kutan said.

Those emails were to Leslie Eppler and Janet Hoy, a pair that also needed to relocate because of work.

“I typed up this ad on Craigslist and it was very random, on the fly kind of an act of desperation and posted it. I’d only heard of Craigslist a couple weeks before,” Hoy said.

“I remember going to Leslie and saying ‘Oh my gosh! Someone answered it! What do I do? and she was, like, answer him!”

“It was kind of like the stars were aligned for us or something,” Marshman said.

After exchanging emails, talking, and meeting, they got a lawyer to make it official.

The agreement states each family pays their original mortgage. They pay the utilities for the home in which they live. The first agreement was for a year. After that, either party can terminate the agreement with 90 days notice.

Major repairs are taken care of by the homeowner. Marshman says they just take care of the minor things. They treat the homes as if they were their own. It’s a situation that means they are still living within their means.

“So far it’s been great. There is never a day that we are not extremely grateful for having found each other. To put ourselves in this situation financially, we would both lose money if we would try to sell our houses at this point,” Kutan said.

“Having had this happen, it’s enabled us to stay afloat with a house that, like I said, all the money we paid into equity is gone, the property value is below what we owe on the mortgage. That could have been a really rough situation if we hadn’t done this,” Hoy said.

Reaction of people who hear about the swap has been mixed.

“People are usually fascinated and a little skeptical like ‘you put an ad on Craigslist and found these people?'” Hoy laughed.

“I think they find it odd,” Marshman said, “like, ‘how did you even come across this?'”

Eppler and Hoy admit they had to clear a few hurdles with mortgage and insurance companies to make sure all the i’s were dotted and t’s crossed.

“We aren’t renters, and that wording was really important,” Eppler said.

Both couples agree they lucked out when it comes to their fellow swappers.

“Meeting them and talking with them, they are wonderful, lovely people but there is still kind of that apprehension. We met on the internet,” Hoy said.

“We’ve made this our home, as I am sure they have made that their home as well,” Marshman said.

© 2010 WKYC-TV