UCSB alumnus Kevin Sloan founded the networking site easycollegeliving.com to provide students with information on upcoming community events and various local housing options.

The site aims to conveniently connect students with housing opportunities in Isla Vista and fellow members through event message boards and forums for buying and selling goods. Easy College Living includes local property and used item listings as well as a blog section where students can access information on employment opportunities or engage in social networking activities.

According to Sloan, the site has evolved from its initial purpose to help members move and store belongings.

“Hopefully within another month or two there will be a lot more content,” Sloan said. “Students are going to get out what they put in.”

Sloan said the online venture will facilitate the resale of used furniture and cut costs for incoming freshmen.

“There’s no other website where students can find housing, post sales and find what they’re looking for all in one place,” Sloan said.

Fourth-year economics major Christian Tran, who used Craigslist to find his current roommates, said established sites providing similar services may attract more customers than Sloan’s college-specific site.

“It’s not that hard, [I] just found them on Craigslist. The only difficulty is finding a place that I liked,” Tran said. “How does [Easy College Living] differentiate themselves from Craigslist?”

However, third-year psychology and sociology major Mariana Prestigiacomo said the site could provide a more specific range of services for campus users.

“We just Craigslist-ed, but it’s still hard to weed out the bad ones,” Prestigiacomo said. “Oh God, it took forever, it was incredibly stressful … It just sucked all around.”

Easy College Living offers students a clear view of housing options with side-by-side comparisons of property listings.

Prestigiacomo said the site could further improve in time with additional features.

“I’d like to see something that was more renter-focused,” Prestigiacomo said. “It would also be nice to have a subleaser site … and it’d be nice to find used stuff, like couches and skateboards.”

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