How to start a Local bartering website?

the easyest way to do this today and many are already doing it , is to set up a face book group called (your Town) swap shop or your town garage sale something of that nature and then start advertizing it to friends nieghbors post info about it at local malls and such also advertizing a bit on facebook and such couldnt hurt either ..

you could do it on a website to useing a fan type page on ebay g+ and other social networks but since you want a trade group zero profit Facebook offer a perfect way to do such a thing , and many have been doing it for a few years now there .

eCommerce has been moving into facebook for a while now auction site linked into facebook groups and time lines there is even a online payment service linked to facebook called payvment I believe it is , lot of speculation that social sites could become the new personlized localized ebay..

one company plugged into facebook that I believe they do store auction and and trade is Yardsellr - Social Buying and Selling yardsellr.com

you can also do this on a site of your own using wordpress with eCommerce plugin or other type of design use social networks to advertize through witha fan group or page on each this is not a free solution it would cost you $$ to run the barter site and its doubtful you will be able to garner interst in people paying to be a part of the group from the start without building reputation first at least .. to be honest I doubt facebook would survive long if they decided to start charging for an account it wouold be a ghost town in short order ..