I was in a listing appoint with a client the other day and she asked me about rumors that agents were advertising the ability to purchase real estate with Bitcoin. She assumed that it was a hoax and nothing but a scam. I told her it was quite the contrary.
With bitcoin being valued at record highs, many early investors have made large sums of money, and are looking to enter more stable markets such as real estate. With the use of a service called BitPay, a global bitcoin payment service provider, investors of bitcoin are able to convert their bitcoins into cash within minutes. The transaction then becomes a cash deal, which can be enticing to sellers. This is a must faster process than withdrawing from other investments, such as a 401K. However, it’s not a strategy that I’m including in ways to sell your house for more money quite yet.
Inman.com, is the leading real estate news source for real estate agents, and real estate technology leaders. They wrote that a prediction for 2018, is the increased presence of Cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin, in real estate transactions. We are already seeing agents across the country include a bitcoin price for their properties, and there was even a recent listing in Miami that was offered as “bitcoin only”. Listed for 33 bitcoin, the property was valued at roughly $540,000.
Benefits of using Bitcoin
For early investors there is definitely an upside to transferring their bitcoin investment to the real estate market. On December 17th, 2017 bitcoin was at a record high of $19,843, and over the following 5 days was down to $15,505. For many investors the comfort of holding on to their profits within a more stable market is a huge appeal.
So! With all of that being said, the age of Cryptocurrency within real estate is definitely approaching. However there is no need to panic! We have a long way to go before this is a common place in our industry. If you have any other real estate questions that I didn’t address, give me a call here at the office!
