Intro to Crypto Real Estate
I am not a real estate agent, nor is Team Glasses, LLC part of the industry. This blog is intended only as an outsider’s introduction to Crypto Real Estate.
If you’re anything like me (truly a beginner when it comes to property) , then you may only know that mortgages are paid monthly until you own your home outright, escrow is the period of time after your offer is accepted by the seller and before you close on the house, and that buying or selling a house takes up a lot of time and effort.
But why should you believe anything I say? Well, in 2016 my husband and I bought our first home (and are now dealing with all the joys of homeownership). We had been looking for a few months (well, let’s be real. I had been looking for a while, and showing the hubs only those that I liked). Then one day, while sitting in our apartment, we received a call saying the offer we had made on a house had been accepted! What happened next? I’m not a professional realtor so I can’t give you the fine details, but we signed several documents, paid lots of money, and the next thing we knew, the house was ours!
Our house was paid for using traditional. old fashioned US dollars also known as fiat, but did you know there are alternatives? No, I don’t mean peanuts or Monopoly money (wouldn’t that be nice though…), I’m talking about cryptocurrency.
That’s right, you can now buy a house on the blockchain using digital currency.
Blockchain is still a relatively new technology, but we already know that its decentralized system allows for trustless transactions that are always fair and transparent. So, why not apply that to the convoluted world of real estate?
Smart Contract technology is a positive for blockchain. Now these can be applied to housing contracts, escrows, and deeds, with agreed upon inputs and outputs, eliminating the possibility of any human error. One day buying a house may be a simple as online shopping.
Of course there are many more applications for crypto real estate, but a huge pull in its favor is the security and efficiency of its transactions. The technology is making it easier to lookup deeds and records, and safer for both the buyer and seller.
Be on the lookout for more Crypto Real Estate posts in the coming months as Team Glasses delves deeper into the industry, or check out our earlier blog here.
In researching this piece, I found articles by Forbes, found here and here, to be particularly useful. I also looked at a few crypto housing sites such as imbrex.io and block66.io.
