Realtors, get armed with Bitcoin and Blockchain knowledge
First 2 tips
Last week I took part in a panel discussion about Bitcoin and Blockchain, organized by the San Francisco Association of Realtors. The event was oversubscribed and fit 250 licenced brokers and agents. Only 3 people from the audience indicated they owned cryptocurrency, so it was a very “green” crypto community.
The audience, however, was very enthusiastic due to the ongoing crypto hype and they were eager to learn how to get involved into the space. As result, I am sharing a few insights for the real estate brokers and agents, which is quite a large community in the US (2 million licensed realtors as per NAR).
Why do realtors better pay attention to Blockchain?
When the internet was invented, brokers still used newspapers and personal connections to find properties and customers; only when tools were created on top of the internet protocols did brokers become empowered (by e-mail communications, maps, marketplaces). Apparently those who caught up first became the most competitive and successful. For example Alain Pinel (our adviser and SVP at Intero International) founded Alain Pinel Brokers company in 1990 with a focus on internet technology and is currently the top 6th US brokerage.
Today the new internet-like phenomenon is called “Blockchain”, which is powering the so called “Cryptocurrencies” and other decentralized assets. Amazon timely bet on the internet in 90s, my company Propy is betting now on the blockchain — Buzzfeed made this analogy in its recent article about new revolutionizing real estate products for millennials.
The good news for brokers is that it’s not necessary to get deep into blockchain technology in order to participate in the blockchain revolution; brokers can simply follow the news and learn about the products being built on the blockchain. Products such as Propy’s platform empower real estate brokers and buyers without them necessarily noticing that there is a blockchain behind the system (in a similar way, you don’t need to know what is ”TCP protocol” in order to browse the internet).
So here is the first tip:
1st Tip: Watch for products built on top of the blockchain
Consumer products on blockchain are yet to be developed for the real estate market and you may want to follow crypto news here: Coindesk, Cointelegraph, educational platform Blockgeeks; and join the International Blockchain Real Estate Association (IBREA).
Companies to watch: Propy, Chromaway, Velox, Real, Brickblock, Atlant, Rex, Bitfury, Ubiquity(it is not a promotion but merely a list of recently launched projects we know about). Companies such as Propy may connect you with a new pool of customers — crypto millionaires and Chinese bitcoin holders.
The basic knowledge to be armed with: there are different blockchains out there: the Bitcoin Blockchain and the Ethereum Blockchain are the most popular (also “bitcoin” and “ether” are cryptocurrencies that are being maintained by the corresponding blockchain). Solutions made on the basis of Smart contracts are using the blockchain too. Every condition and execution of a smart contract is being recorded on the blockchain. Propy made the first real estate transaction powered by Smart Contract in October. It made possible for Escrow to be replaced by Smart Contracts (more information here).
In its landmark Ukraine transaction, the buyer sent funds to the Smart Contract wallet and then the Smart contract distributed the funds once the notary confirmed that the seller signed the transfer. The buyer paid in Ether and the seller received Ether. It could as easily had been Bitcoin.
What can you do today: list your property with Propy with no initial cost (here) stating payment method in $ or cryptocurrency. Also, start asking your sellers and buyers if they want to transact in cryptocurrency.
2nd Tip: Start Using Cryptocurrencies
It’s not the blockchain you want to be learning a lot about if you’re focusing on selling properties, but rather on cryptocurrencies. “There are many crypto millionaires out there who would happily diversify their portfolio with a property purchase if there was an easy tool for them such as Propy”, — said Rick Teed (a top producing luxury real estate agent in San Francisco) at the same SFAR panel discussion. As I am writing this blog, the total cryptocurrency market cap is over $400bn (as per https://coinmarketcap.com/ — a crypto markets resource being visited more frequently than the WSJ). Last year ⅔ of the circulating supply of bitcoins was owned by Chinese residents — the most sought out property investors.
Rick Teed, having years-long experience in the crypto-markets, encouraged the audience to start investing in Bitcoin, and, I am adding — why not!
I do not necessarily encourage you to invest in Bitcoin or Ether but rather to buy some in order to understand how it works both by opening a cold wallet (e.g. MEW, Bitcoin Core Wallet), comfortable wallets protected by e-mail recovery capability (Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini) or a hardware wallet (TREZOR). This is how you’ll learn what is a Private Key (like a password which cannot be restored if you lose it) and how easy it is to send coins from one address to another. You’ll learn about disadvantages as well: if you lose the key — you lose the money; if you put in a wrong address to transfer money — you lose the money. Propy team is developing a secure bitcoin and ether x.509 certificate, which will eliminate manual mistakes and copy/paste hacks and provide a very convinient secure payment procedure for such high value transactions as real estate payment.
What can you do today: get your first coins for free: if you don’t have a wallet, create one at MEW, copy the address, sign up at Propy and you’ll receive your first free crypto coins — PRO token, paste the address to Propy wallet. You can then sell or buy PRO tokens at exchanges, i.e. here (same way as you buy or sell bitcoin or ether). First 100 signed up brokers/agents receive 100PRO, which could be used for transaction fees, next 1000 brokers/agents will recieve 30PRO.
Join our facebook page if you have questions on how to buy coins or how to use Propy.
This is not an investment advice.
