Sharing Is Good: How to Save Money, Time and Resources Through Collaborative Consumption (21 page)

place to live in. Exchanging properties is also an alternative way for investors or second homeowners to move assets to different

locations, thereby spreading and reducing the risk.

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Cost to join?
Registration is free. GoSwap’s self-serve basic listing plans are free; prepaid standard listing plans start at $20 for a two-month listing and $60 for a one-year listing. Bank and real estate broker processing fees are the same as one would incur

when buying and selling a property because a real estate exchange is simply selling one property and buying another. GoSwap does

not charge any commission for exchanging real estate.

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What about safety?
As with a traditional home sale, members are encouraged to use a real estate lawyer to handle the transactions.

There is little that can go wrong under normal circumstances —

assuming both parties are qualified, both properties are appraised at approximately the value of the contract price, and there is an escape clause in the contract stating that each party is relieved in the case that one party isn’t able to go through with the trade for some reason.

BestHouseSwap.com
— Post your property on their bulletin

board. Include a detailed description of your house and a description of a property that you would consider trading for. Find a match among the houses offered on the site, and organize a simultaneous sale in which no money changes hands.

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Where is it offered?
This website currently only accepts properties in the US, Canada, and Mexico.

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Who can use it?
Anyone who owns a property.

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Cost to join?
There is no cost to browse or list properties.

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What about safety?
As with other services listed in this section, it’s recommended that you employ a real estate agent or legal professional when swapping houses. The process is very similar to

selling a home on the traditional market, except that no money

changes hands.

DomuSwap.com
— Billed as the Internet’s first social network for permanent house swapping. Through this forum, wanna-be home

swappers can post their properties, communicate safely with other owners, and access other house-swapping sites.

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Where is it offered?
Internationally, although most listings are in the US.

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Who can use it?
Anyone who owns property of value, including RVs, vacation homes, and boats.

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Cost to join?
None.

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What about safety?
Think of DomuSwap as the Craigslist of permanent property swapping. It’s a use-at-your-own-risk tool,

although the community has posted many helpful topics about

value assessment and how to start a successful swap.

EasyHouseExchange.com
— This website makes it easy to enter your property or properties, swap with a straight exchange, swap

and agree on the difference or swap to rent with another site member and move on. Temporary swaps also welcome.

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Where is it offered?
Currently active in 19 countries, including the United States and Virgin Islands, most of Europe, and

Australia.

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Who can use it?
Property owners, developers, and investors are all welcome.

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Cost to join?
Private property owners are invited to join at no charge, and professionals are encouraged to contact the company

directly to discuss rates.

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What about safety?
The site’s founders advise that swapping your property is a legal transaction just like selling it, so it is vital that both parties take proper legal advice before conducting a swap.

Cohousing/Coliving

If you love the idea of shared housing and want to take full advantage of its economical and sustainable benefits, cohousing or coliving might be concepts to consider.

In cohousing communities (which aren’t communes, like some

people think) people live in separate quarters but share common

areas, as well as decision-making and maintenance tasks. Social

activities are an integral part of cohousing communities, so neighbors know each other very well, and they often create micro-sharing economies amongst themselves. Decisions about major changes to

the community are made democratically, and community members

often share the burden of their execution.

Coliving (basically a fancy term for having one or more room-

mates) is a similar concept that’s expanding beyond the ranks of

college students in tough economic times. Professional adults and even senior citizens are experimenting with shared living spaces as a way to save money, meet mutual needs, and conserve resources.

Roommates.com
— A national roommate search and connection

service that boasts almost 50,000 listings in thousands of cities.

Photo profiles, two-way matching, and free messaging services make it fun to use and safer than the classifieds.

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Where is it offered?
Only in the United States.

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Who can use it?
Anyone who’s looking for someone with whom to share living expenses and property maintenance duties.

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Cost to join?
Basic membership is free. As a basic member, you can add a profile, browse your matches and send RoomMail messages. In order to read messages received from other members,

you must become a Choice Member. Fees for Choice Membership

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are as follows: $5.99 for a 3-day trial, $19.99 for 30 days, and

$29.99 for 60 days.

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What about safety?
The sketchy thing about sharing a living space with someone else is that it’s hard to know what type of a person they really are. Roommates complete member profiles, including full photos, comments, and maps can help you form a more

comprehensive picture of your potential coliving partner. Always

be sure to ask for references; consider conducting a background

check before making a decision.

Roomster.com
— Billed as the world’s largest social network for roommates, rooms, apartments, flats, rentals, and sublets, it has over 1.5 million profiles and listings and 4 million active users. Roomster helps match roommates with a compatible personality by offering

numerous features, including the ability to search for roommates by age, interest, or location.

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Where is it offered?
Roomster serves all of the US, Canada and the United Kingdom.

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Who can use it?
Anyone interested in shared living arrangements.

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Cost to join?
All of Roomster’s basic features are free; anyone can search for listings, enter a profile, or view profile information for potential roommates. While sending messages to other users is free, responding to them requires an account upgrade, which requires

a fee.

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What about safety?
The website employs a flagging system where-by users can report suspicious or inappropriate activity. There are multiple resources on the site about how to avoid scams and conflict with new roommates. As always, choose roommates at your

own risk.

Craigslist.org
— Don’t be fooled by this website’s simple appearance.

It’s the world’s largest digital classifieds; its forums are divided into local and regional publications. Craigslist is community moderated; What to Share

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in most cases, it’s free to browse and post listings. Every local Craigslist features a housing category with separate subcategories for sublets, roommates, vacation rentals, and housing swaps. The cool thing

about using Craigslist to find a roommate (besides the fact that it’s completely free) is that they’re likely already local and familiar with the same places and culture as you. Or, they may be someone who is new in town who could expose you to an entirely different culture.

Cohousing.org
— Cohousing is the leading resource for those who want to learn more about this style of shared living. Now, the site also boasts a digital directory of hundreds of cohousing communities in the United States and Canada. There’s also an interactive map that allows you to search for cohousing arrangements in your own community or somewhere you might be considering as a future home.

Ic.org
— The Fellowship for Intentional Communities exists to serve the growing communities movement and provide resources

for starting a community, finding a community home, living in community, or creating more community in your life. Among the many

valuable resources it offers is a Communities Directory, with listings of hundreds of ecovillage, cohousing, commune, co-op, and other

cooperative living arrangements available around the world. The US

has the most listings with over 1,700, but there are communities

from almost every other country included, from Nepal to Germany.

CoHousingPartners.com
— A full service cohousing development firm specializing in the unique needs of cohousing groups. If you are interested in starting your own cohousing community and don’t know where to start, CoHousing Partners is available to support you from initial group formation to looking for property to moving in.

Transportation

Many view ownership of a personal vehicle as a necessity; many

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completely idle. All the while, we’re shelling out thousands of dollars a year on gas, insurance, and repairs, not to mention the environmental price paid just so we can hop in, crank the A/C, and drive ourselves two miles to the grocery store when we’re feeling peckish.

According to the US Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey,

25 percent of all trips are made within a mile of the home, 40 percent of all trips are within two miles of the home, and 50 percent of the working population commutes five miles or less to work. Yet more than 82 percent of trips five miles or less are made by personal motor vehicle. Imagine if, instead of bearing the cost and carbon footprint of car ownership all on your own, you could just pay to have access to a car when you really need it? Shared transportation services make this reality possible.

Car-sharing

Futureofcarsharing.org
— Provides flexible transportation options for those in urban and some suburban areas. It’s instant-access to a network of cars 24 hours a day; you pay per trip, without

commitment or inconvenience. Like most types of collaborative

consumption, car-sharing comes in two main varieties: commercial

and peer-to-peer. Commercial car-sharing ventures maintain fleets of vehicles, usually highly efficient models — in some cases hybrids or EVs. The company facilitates booking and payment online. You

can rent these vehicles by the hour, so that you don’t pay for a single minute of time the car’s not in use. Insurance and gas are typically included in the price, similar to the way a rental car company would work.

Of course, we don’t need big companies to allow us to share a

vehicle. Peer-to-peer car sharing can occur between two neighbors or an entire community. There are even some commercial platforms

that exist merely to make it easier to rent out your own car when you’re not using it. In some cases, this process can be quite lucrative for the car owner.

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Car-sharing successfully reduces the number of vehicles on the

road, which means less traffic and reduced carbon emissions.

Zipcar.com
— A membership-based car-sharing company that

provides automobile rentals to its members, billable on an hourly or daily basis.

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Where is it offered?
To be eligible for a Zipcar membership, you must be 21 years of age (those 18 and up can take advantage of

Zipcar’s university programs with certain restrictions), and must have had a valid driver’s license for at least one year. Corporate and family memberships are also available.

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Who can use it?
Currently, Zipcars are available in the US, Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom, although more international expansion is expected.

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Cost to join?
Zipcar offers multiple membership types so you can choose the plan that best fits your driving needs. All plans involve an application fee, an annual fee, and hourly driving rates. That may sound like a lot, but they’re all much lower than the traditional rental car alternatives.

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What about safety?
A Zipcar membership includes insurance coverage, although that coverage varies depending on the state in which the accident occurs and the age of driver. For both third-party and Zipcar vehicle damage claims, the member may be

responsible for a damage fee of up to $750.

Igocars.org
— Since its inception in 2002, this non-profit has worked to catalyze a set of transportation innovations that make it feasible and desirable for Chicago residents to get around conveniently and economically without having to own a car and, at the same time, reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions.

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Where is it offered?
Chicago.

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Who can use it?
Anyone who lives in or near the Chicago area.

Individual, business, and university memberships are available.

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Cost to join?
For individuals, it costs $50 to join, plus a $25 non-refundable application fee. A $25 annual renewal fee is charged

one month prior to the one-year anniversary date of your mem-