Woman trades bobby pin for house, goes viral

Six months after setting out to trade a bobby pin for a house, a 29-year-old California woman and social media influencer now has a place she can call home.

On Nov. 29, Demi Skipper, who is based in San Francisco and started the Trade Me Project, announced on social media that she had finally achieved her goal through months of exchanging items.

“After six months of trading a single bobby pin until I get a house, it finally happened,” Skipper said on Instagram, where she has over 275,000 followers. “My last trade, I traded a 2006 Mustang for a 2011 Jeep. And after looking for a trade, I finally found it within the same city.”

Skipper said she asked someone to drive the Jeep Patriot to Austin Kratz, the owner of Wildbound Cabin Co., who took the car and gave the couple a brand new tiny home in return.

“The trade really is unbelievable,” Skipper said. “Austin and his team at Wildbound Cabin Co. actually make these tiny cabins to go on trucks, trailers and even convert vans. After I saw one, I knew I had to make the trade. [The cabins] are beautiful.”

Skipper’s new home includes a bed, indoor lights, shelving and countertops.

“While, technically, it’s not the house, it’s a step in the right direction,” Skipper said on Instagram.

According to KGTV, Skipper, who started the Trade Me Project in May, was inspired by Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald. In 2005, MacDonald had similarly started off with something small — a red paperclip, to be exact — and, over the course of a year, ended up with a two-story house.

In six months, Skipper made over 20 trades, nabbing some major deals in the process. They include a snowboard, an Apple TV, a pair of Off-White Nike Hyperdunks, a MacBook Pro and an electric bike food truck.

But the California woman told KGTV she isn’t done yet. She said she hopes to trade the tiny home for a house that she can donate to someone in the Trade Me Project family.

“The Trade Me Project family, which is almost 5 million people, all want to be part of this,” she said. “The idea is to maybe get the cabin across the country from Pennsylvania, all the way to me in San Francisco and have different people in the Trade me Project family be able to stay in this cabin.”

If you liked this story, check out this story about this tiny home that has captivated TikTok users.

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