Who remembers the bobby pin house? Back in 2021, a TikToker went viral for documenting the incredible cross-country story of how she bartered her way from a bobby pin to a whole house — in just 28 swaps, no less.
The story got even more incredible in the summer of 2022 when San Francisco native Demi Skipper, the TikToker behind the Trade Me Project, decided to generously trade the now-renovated house — worth $80,000 and located in Nashville, Tennessee — with a worthy person in need of a home. For a bobby pin, obviously.
After receiving 2000 applicants, Demi gifted the house to Shay, a young woman who instantly earned the sympathy of the internet with her tough start in life, from losing her mother in a car crash as a toddler to her father committing suicide when she was a teen. TikTok couldn’t get enough of Shay’s fortunes being turned around in such a heartwarming way.
A day after Shay’s video was posted, Demi reluctantly shared her response to the whole situation, which revealed the actual truth of what had happened — and she had the receipts to prove it. In short, Shay had to be kicked out of the property, as she proved to be a grossly negligent tenant.
Demi admitted that she had been holding out on sharing this information for the longest time, as she had wanted to “protect Shay,” but with her name and reputation now being impugned, it was time to speak up.
In late June 2022, Shay moved into the Nashville residence with her boyfriend, his family, and their pets, but just a month later, a neighbor messaged Demi to let her know that an ever-growing pile of packages was stacking up on the porch and getting ruined by rain. Demi reached out to Shay to inquire what was happening and she said she was back in her native Pennsylvania but was due to get on a flight back to TN that day. And yet by four months later, that October, Shay had not returned.
Finally, Shay confessed to Demi that she had been “overwhelmed” by the whole experience of winning this house and moving across the country, so she had been putting off fully uprooting her life. Demi completely understood this and offered to handle everything with the property until she was ready. In January 2023, Demi contacted her again to say she still needed to officially transfer ownership of the house to her, to which Shay admitted she needed time to think about it.
After endless back and forth, as Shay insisted that she would be moving into the house soon, in August 2023 — so 14 months since Shay had last set foot in the place — Demi decided to investigate the property. As documented by video evidence, the residence had been “completely ruined” despite Shay and her boyfriend’s family only living there for a month. It was trashed, garbage had been stuffed into closets and gone rotten, causing a maggot infestation, and there was even urine on the floor.
Naturally, Demi told Shay that she was “shocked” and “sad” that she had let the house deteriorate to such an extent and that she would retain ownership of it. Shay agreed that this was “understandable,” that she was “disappointed” in herself as well, and that she thanked Demi for everything she had done for her. In order to prevent Shay from receiving backlash online, as she was clearly going through something, Demi elected not to post about the state of the house on TikTok.
For Shay to turn around and attack Demi for “banning” her from the house, then, is a huge betrayal and must sorely sting after Demi had such honorable intentions and a patient attitude throughout this whole situation. With Demi outing the truth so thoroughly and irrefutably, it’s no wonder that Shay has since not just removed her video but deactivated her entire TikTok account.
You’d think the hardest part about the Trade Me Project would’ve been swapping a bobby pin for a house, but it turns out it’s actually finding someone who sees the real value in this once-in-a-lifetime gift.
