RealOpen Certified · Lesson 6 of 8

Objections and the listing side

After this, you can answer the eight questions that stall these deals, in words that sound like one experienced agent talking to another.

After this lesson you can

Give a listing agent, a seller, a title officer and a lender a short, checkable answer to the question each one actually has.
Tell a listing agent how to confirm a proof of funds, and say what the letter does and does not show.
Answer the laundering question directly, as a strength of the process.
Decline to give tax or market advice without losing the client's confidence.
Explain in one breath what RealOpen is and is not: not a brokerage with agents, not a lender.

By Johnny Schiro, licensed real estate broker in Texas, New York and Florida. Updated 2026-10-10.

Take the Module 6 check

About the certification

This check has five questions. You need 4 correct to pass.

The rule for every conversation

Skepticism about crypto is reasonable, and you will not argue anyone out of it. Do not try. Give short, checkable answers and let the paperwork do the work. You are not selling crypto. You are presenting a cash offer with verified funds.

Be plain about where the money comes from. If someone asks whether the funds are crypto, say yes, and say what happens next: verified, converted, wired. An agent who dodges the question invites exactly the suspicion they were trying to avoid.

1. The listing agent who has never seen one

What he is worried about: whether the money is real and whether it will close.

Listing agent: "A crypto offer. I've never done one of these. How does this even work?"

You: "On your side it works like any cash offer. My buyer's funds were verified by a third party, here's the proof of funds, and at closing escrow receives a standard wire. Your seller gets dollars. Nobody on your side touches crypto or opens anything."

Listing agent: "And if the crypto crashes before closing?"

You: "The price of the house is in dollars and doesn't change. The letter already states a conservative number below what she holds, and if the market moves she sends more to produce the same dollars. The risk sits with my buyer, not your seller."

What to avoid: explaining blockchains, or asking him to trust a screenshot. If he wants to read something, send him realopen.com/resources/someone-offered-crypto-for-your-house.

2. The listing agent who doubts the letter

What she is worried about: that the proof of funds is a piece of paper anyone could have made. After Module 3, you know that worry is legitimate.

Listing agent: "Anyone can print a letter. How do I know this one means anything?"

You: "Fair question, and I'd ask it too. RealOpen's phone number and email are on the letter; call them and they'll confirm it. Before it was issued my buyer verified her identity with a government ID and proved she controls the wallet, and the funds were screened. What the letter says is that on the date printed she had at least this much, verified, available to close."

Listing agent: "It's dated three weeks ago."

You: "I'll get you a current one today."

Say what the letter does and does not show. It shows verified buying power on a date. It does not promise the funds will still be there at closing, which is true of any proof of funds, including a bank letter.

3. The seller who thinks she is being paid in Bitcoin

What she is worried about: being handed something she does not understand.

Seller: "I don't want Bitcoin. I don't know what I'd do with it."

You: "You won't get any. The buyer's crypto is converted to dollars before it reaches escrow, and you're paid by wire like any cash sale. You don't need a wallet or an account anywhere, and nothing about your closing changes."

If a buyer actually proposes paying the seller in crypto, that is Route 3 from Module 2, a different and rare arrangement. It needs the seller's agreement and has tax consequences for her. A seller can always answer, "Convert it and wire dollars."

4. "Isn't this money laundering?"

What they are worried about: where the money came from.

Seller's attorney: "Crypto. How do we know this isn't laundered money?"

You: "Before any money moves, the buyer goes through identity verification, anti-money-laundering and sanctions screening, and source-of-funds documentation. What reaches escrow is a dollar wire from a screened buyer. Frankly it's more screening than a cash buyer wiring from a bank account gets."

Take the question seriously. It is a fair one, and the answer is a strength of the process.

5. The nervous title or escrow officer

What she is worried about: crypto landing in her trust account, and her underwriter's rules.

Escrow officer: "We can't accept crypto into our trust account. It's a compliance problem for us."

You: "You won't receive any. You get a standard U.S. dollar wire with reference details, the same as any cash file. If your underwriter wants it, RealOpen can send a third-party funding letter confirming it's sending the buyer's funds at the buyer's direction."

There is a page written for her at realopen.com/title-companies.

6. The loan officer who says sell it and wait

What he is worried about: a deposit he cannot source. Module 5 covered the substance; this is the conversation.

Loan officer: "Tell him to cash out now and we'll season it for sixty days. That's the clean way."

You: "That's the fallback if the funds can't be documented. Here they can be. He's verified with RealOpen, you'll have an asset report with the wallet history, and at funding the down payment is converted and wired straight to escrow with a transaction record. What documentation do you need to accept sourced funds instead of seasoning them?"

If the answer is still "sell and wait," your buyer can talk to another lender. That is ordinary advice.

7. The buyer who asks about taxes or the market

What they are worried about: how big the bill is, or whether to wait for a better price.

Buyer: "How much tax am I going to owe on this?"

You: "I'm not your tax advisor, and I'd be guessing. In the U.S., converting crypto to buy a house is generally a taxable event on the crypto, the way selling stock would be. Talk to a CPA who works with crypto before you fund, so you know the number going in."

What to avoid: estimating the bill, or repeating the idea that paying the seller directly in Bitcoin avoids the tax. It does not. The tax treatment is the same either way.

Buyer: "Bitcoin's going up. Should I wait until the week of closing to convert?"

You: "That's your call, not mine. Here's what I can tell you: you can fund early or at closing, and the price is whatever it is when you fund. If you want certainty, fund early and the dollars wait in escrow. If you want to ride it, know that a drop means you send more. Either way, give yourself a business day of margin."

8. "Is RealOpen a brokerage? Am I losing my commission?"

You will hear this from other agents, and you may have wondered yourself.

Another agent: "RealOpen has a brokerage license. They're going to take your buyer."

You: "They don't represent buyers or sellers and they have no agents. The license lets them receive referral fees and get MLS data, that's it. I brought this client, so they take nothing from my commission. If they'd referred the buyer to me, there'd be a standard referral fee agreed in writing first, same as any referral."

A related question is whether RealOpen is a lender. It is not. It verifies crypto and converts it to dollars. Any mortgage comes from the buyer's own lender.

Script card

Who	The line
Listing agent	"It's a cash offer with verified funds. Escrow gets a wire and your seller gets dollars."
Listing agent doubting the letter	"RealOpen's contact details are on it. Call them. It shows verified buying power on the date printed, and I'll get you a current one."
Seller	"You never touch crypto. You're paid in dollars, by wire, like any cash sale."
Anyone asking about laundering	"The buyer is identity-verified, screened for sanctions and source of funds before any money moves."
Title or escrow	"Crypto never enters your account. You receive a standard dollar wire."
Loan officer	"The funds can be documented. What do you need to accept sourced funds instead of seasoning them?"
Buyer asking about taxes	"It's generally taxable on the crypto. Talk to a crypto-literate CPA before you fund."
Buyer asking about the market	"Your call. Fund early for certainty or later to ride it, and leave a day of margin."
Another agent	"RealOpen doesn't represent anyone and isn't a lender. My client stays my client."

The one-page version is the field resource "Listing-side objections."

RealOpen Certified is a private designation issued by RealOpen. It is not continuing education credit and is not issued or endorsed by any state licensing authority. How certifying works.