By Judith Lussier
Barter, this process of exchanging goods or services as old as the world, is currently experiencing an unexpected boom. Here are eight websites through which you can trade a lot of things.
Due to the increase in the cost of living and for the sake of ecology, more and more people are bartering. Thanks to social networks, this process has the right to a new life—looking at eight websites where goods or services are exchanged.
House swap
Guillaume and Audrey realized that their large apartment (ground floor with basement) in the Parc-Extension district of Montreal could make people jealous. So they tried their luck by posting it on Craigslist’s classifieds indicating “apartment exchange.” A week later, for the same rent, they were installed in a slightly smaller but more central apartment… to the delight of a mother who dreamed of a home like theirs. Both parties only had to sign the assignments of lease and obtain the consent of their respective landlord to formalize the agreement.
But it is also possible to barter his house or his apartment for a particular time only, for example, to take advantage of a discount holiday in Costa Rica. Indeed, it is enough for a Costa Rican villa owner to want to spend time in Montreal in your condo. The Trocmaison site facilitates this type of exchange and offers a model contract. We can even provide the business of hospitality: you receive your barter partners at home, and they will then welcome you in turn.
Service barter
Are you cooking up the best bolognese in town and would like to trade the hour it takes to prepare it for an hour of maintenance on your computer? This is precisely the kind of exchange that the Community Services Exchange Bank allows. Thanks to this network, you can benefit from an hour of auto mechanics, massage therapy, or babysitting (among others), against the promise to offer, in turn, an hour of your specialty.
In the 21st century, knowledge is power, they say. So, rather than helping you get a fish for another good or service, the e-180 site, a micro-mentoring network that allows you to exchange small and significant knowledge, offers you to be shown how to fish it. Mushrooms and their picking hold no secrets for you? Why not exchange this knowledge for a course on tasting Chinese teas?
