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Airbnb Finds Renters for Those Facing Foreclosure

  • July 19th 2010

by Mark Wellborn

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Airbnb Finds Renters for Those Facing Foreclosure: Figure 1

Craigslist has been used to find renters for homeowners facing foreclosure since the housing crisis began. Bloomberg now reports that Airbnb.com, a site primarily used by property owners to rent out rooms, is being used for the same purpose.

This was not the intention of Airbnb founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, who created the website “to take the hassle out of renting out a house, a spare room, or even just a couch,” according to Bloomberg.

However, it appears that it is helping foreclosure victims like Nichelle Morant who owns a three-unit house in Brooklyn:

With bills mounting and foreclosure looming, Morant converted the space into a bed and breakfast. Using the San Francisco-based rental site Airbnb.com to take reservations, she was soon raking in $4,500 a month, enough to cover her mortgage.

“This has been our stimulus package,” said Morant, a pastry chef, who lives with her family on the ground floor of the home. “We were going to lose our house.”

See other articles related to: airbnb, bloomberg

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/airbnb_finds_renters_for_those_facing_foreclosure/2277.

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