When the coronavirus pandemic started, most people were confined in their homes. To entertain themselves, some have started joining trading groups on social media. This is where you trade an item that you have for something that you want. The idea is for you to trade something less valuable for something of great value for you.

And this has become a greater pursuit for some people. There were vloggers who have done it. In fact, one episode of “The Office” revolves around it.

One of those who took this challenge seriously than others is Demi Skipper of San Francisco. She is the product manager for Cash App but she likes having several side hustles. One of those is her trading hobby. It all started back in May 2020. Her goal back then was to start a trading trend with a bobby pin. What she didn’t know was that she was going to end up trading multiple times on her way up to a house!

Demi called this the “Trade Me Project.”

In her first video, Demi said, “I’m trading a bobby pin up until I get a house.” She documented each step of the way and each trade on Instagram and TikTok that she has made. She used eBay, Facebook, Craigslist, and other sites to help advertise her trades.

Her first trade was for a pair of earrings. In an interview with the New York Post, Demi said, “For this first trade, I went to several Facebook groups and posted that I was hoping to find a trade for a single bobby pin until I got a house. After many rejections, I finally found Abbie who offered me a pair of earrings she got for her birthday as long as I invited her to the house in the end.”

After her project became viral online, many people became invested in her journey. This gained her over 296,000 followers on Instagram and 5 million on TikTok. She has done so many trades after the first one. At one point she even received a Chipotle celebrity card, entitling her to a Chipotle meal – a drink, entree, and chips, every day for a year. This also gave her a catered dinner for 50.

Other than that, she also got a snowboard, an Xbox, a peloton, some cars, a tiny cabin, and a trailer with a Tesla Powerwall 2. She kept trading them up until she finally revealed that she’d completed her challenge just the day after Thanksgiving.

In a video reveal, Demi said, “I can’t believe this. A year and a half of trading a single bobby pin until I get a house, and I’ve done it. And look at it, this just shows you — it’s possible!”

According to Demi, it took her 28 trades to finish this project, and she did it. She told the New York Post that the small house is worth around $80,000. She said, “It has two bedrooms and one bathroom as well as a giant backyard.”

But wait, it seems like Demi isn’t nearly done.

She and her husband will be staying at the home for a bit to do some remodeling. And she said that she is planning to give it to someone in need. Then, she would start another trading project all over again.