Buying Real Estate with Bitcoin

It was a typical Sunday afternoon in the life of a busy real estate professional. The open house was going well with a steady stream of interest. The agent was dutifully providing prospective buyers with information and asking questions to determine their needs. One young couple seemed particularly interested. The skilled salesperson saw all the buying signals.

After several tours through the home and all their questions were answered, the agent asked the closing question:

“Would you like to put an offer in on this property?”

The couple replied with a nervous “yes.” The agent moved quickly with skill and grace onto reviewing the paperwork necessary to make the offer. When the question of financing was approached the couple responded by telling the agent they would be buying the property with cryptocurrency, specifically with Bitcoin.

This is where the typical Sunday afternoon open house took an interesting turn. Could you buy a property with Bitcoin? How would that work? This was a whole new frontier.

The agent knew there would be some huge stumbling blocks they would have to figure out. Convincing the sellers that the buyer’s Bitcoin could be converted into American dollars and be used to actually buy their home would be one of the first. Then, the agent would need to alleviate the concerns of title and escrow to actually get through to a successful closing.

Bitcoin is the most popular form of cryptocurrency. It is digital cash. Originally created in 2008, Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer decentralized network. Think of it as file sharing. People invest in Bitcoin and each time a transaction is completed, a digital key is created to ensure that the Bitcoin is not double spent. There is a limited amount of Bitcoin available so there is an exact market cap created and value is driven in the same way as we would think of the traditional stock market, based on supply and demand.

When our buyers wanted to buy a house and needed cash to pay for it, they had to sell their Bitcoin. To do that, they went to https://bitpay.com/BitPay and traded their Bitcoin in for cash. The value of the transaction is determined based on the value of Bitcoin on that day and time. Very much like selling a stock on the stock exchange. BitPay is being used by many businesses to allow people to use Bitcoin to pay for purchases. The next time you are in Subway getting lunch, take a look at the cash register and you’ll notice the BitPay logo letting people know they accept cryptocurrency as a payment.

With cash in hand and the other details successfully navigated by real estate professionals, our buyers became the proud owner of a home they paid for with digital cash. It is a whole new frontier.

Here are a few resources if you are interested in learning more about real estate and cryptocurrency:

BITCOIN FOR REAL ESTATE 

This site provides direct public access to the most current and comprehensive listing of properties for sale using Bitcoin, worldwide. With Bitcoin Real Estate, homeowners can now offer their homes privately or with their agent/real estate company.

INTERNATIONAL BLOCK CHAIN REAL ESTATE ASSOCIATION 

Founded in 2013, the International Blockchain Real Estate Association (IBREA) is a member-focused educational and trade organization dedicated to implementing blockchain in real estate. IBREA has over 4,400 verified individual members and several industry members around the world.

UBIQUITY

This is the first blockchain-secured platform for real estate record keeping. It offers a simple user experience for securely recording and tracking property with a software-as-a-service (SaaS) blockchain platform. Unitquity helps e-recording companies, title companies, municipalities and custom clients benefit from a clean record of ownership, thereby reducing future title search time, increased confidence and transparency.

Wendy Forsythe has leveraged her passion for real estate, operations and technology to help build successful real estate networks in both Canada and the United States. She was recognized in 2017 as one of the Swanepoel Power 200 and as a 2017 Inman Real Estate Influencer. She is currently the Chief Operating Officer at HomeSmart International. HomeSmart combines a transaction fee business system with high service and robust technology. Reach Wendy directly at [email protected].