Friday, December 11, 2009

Bartering goods and services — ski tunes for bar drinks, carpentry work for accounting help — is a longtime tradition for cash-strapped locals in Aspen and other ski towns. One 17-year local is now taking that concept to a whole new level, blending this old-fashioned idea with new technology and adding a dash of creative entrepreneurship.

This summer, Joshua Landis launched SwapAspen.com, an online marketplace for trading goods, services and real estate. The concept is simple: Those who have things or talents to trade post them on the website, often listing what they are looking for in return. Or vice-versa.

Long familiar with the local bartering tradition, Landis said he conceived the idea in yet another traditional way: “I though of it on the gondola last spring.”

“It was born out of the recession,” said Landis, a 17-year-local who owns a small fitness facility in Aspen and sells real estate. Since the economic downturn, he said, he’s been seeing people begin to trade for more services where in the past they might have paid for it. And with work slowing down for his employees at the fitness center, bartering was a good way to keep them working and stay visible in the market.

“It’s something that’s happening already, so we figured we’d make a platform to facilitate it,” he said.

SwapAspen’s postings are divided into three categories: goods, services and real estate (how uniquely Aspen). The first two categories are straightforward, but the real estate category encompasses a couple of different concepts. People can trade real estate for short-term stays, or, actually trade their hard-to-sell homes or investment properties for something that suits them better.

Though the latter is a completely new concept, Landis said, it’s not unusual for brokers to communicate with each other about buyers willing to trade properties. And the local MLS (Multiple Listing Service) currently has 70 listings in which the seller is open to trading, he said. Given the downturn in the local real estate market, bartering is yet another option for sellers and brokers who are having difficulty getting rid of properties.

Local Thai massage practitioner and yoga instructor Kiara Heng has built her nearly one-year-old local business on trade, she said — swapping her services for a website and graphic design work, for example. A SwapAspen customer, she says the concept is more than about just trading stuff.

“I am convinced that trade is the wave of the future,” she said. “It also forces you to build and foster real relationships instead of business transactions. Both sides have to make each other happy and reach equitable solutions.”

Heng is currently negotiating a trade through SwapAspen with someone who works with youth at risk. She thinks this person, who can’t afford to pay for Thai massage, might be able to help her advance her idea of creating a yoga/leadership nonprofit geared towards high school girls.

Heng said that even though she charges Aspen prices and works with wealthy clients, her services should be available to anybody, and trade is one way to do that. Having grown up without much money, she said, it’s opened some barriers for her too.

“It’s cool for me because I realized I don’t have to do everything on my own,” she said. “I’ve built a network of people and come a long way in less than a year.”

For his part, Landis was capitalizing on a national trend — on his website he has several articles from all over the country saying that trading and bartering are seeing a revival in this Great Recession. Craigslist, for example, reported earlier this year that their trade boards have seen a 100 percent increase.

As for his own business plan, he’s still in the stage of building up SwapAspen and accumulating clients, and doesn’t expect to see much revenue from the site in the short term. Postings are free, but Landis charges for a section called “Featured Swaps” that gives barterers more room for description and photos. Eventually, he’ll sell advertising.

There can be tax and legal ramifications to trading, but SwapAspen.com doesn’t give any specific advice. It does have a disclaimer on its website, however, that puts the onus on its customers to find out what they need to report to the IRS.
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