How to Buy a Home with Cryptocurrency: Part 2

Buying a home with crypto was once considered risky business. While the acceptance of cryptocurrency as a payment method has grown and caught the attention of those in the real estate industry, many are still slow to embrace the idea of purchasing real estate through crypto. Concerns over tedious transactions and volatility are all among the first questions most buyers ask about crypto-based offers today. While it may seem daunting, there are many reasons why a buyer may want to purchase a home with crypto, however, they don't come without their drawbacks. Unsure if purchasing a home with cryptocurrency is right for you? Let's dive into some of the pros and cons.

Pros

Diversify Investments - Buying real estate with cryptocurrency offers buyers a stable investment opportunity. While cryptocurrency is volatile and can fluctuate from day to day, real estate appreciates and depreciates over long periods of time, offering buyers a stable asset.

Faster Transactions - A direct cryptocurrency sale can speed up the process of buying a home by eliminating the typical hurdles of the mortgage process. In a typical mortgage process, sellers and lenders are provided with a snapshot in time of the buyer's capital and credit history, whereas a crypto wallet can be accessed at any moment with the most up-to-date information on what funds are available to purchase property.

Cons

Not all sellers accept crypto - If you're looking to trade in your crypto for a real estate investment, finding a seller willing to accept digital currency may be difficult. And while some listing sites allow you to filter for sellers willing to accept cryptocurrency, this practice has yet to become a widespread feature on many sites, but we do anticipate this to become more regular as crypto continues to popularize as a global currency.

Cryptocurrency volatility - In today's market, cryptocurrency volatility and fluctuating prices may dissuade sellers from accepting crypto as payment. While the price of cryptocurrency changes day by day, the value a seller may have been promised could easily change during the timeline a home is purchased.

Taxes and bidding wars - If you're purchasing a home with crypto, you'll have to sell your crypto before even making an offer to prove you have the funds. With RealOpen, you can keep your assets in crypto until closing.

How does RealOpen solve this?

Although purchasing a home with crypto seems complicated and high-risk, RealOpen exists to solve the complexity as the first and only company across the globe focused on accepting cryptocurrency for real estate transactions. Powered by RealScore, the first crypto scoring system for buyers and sellers of luxury real estate, RealOpen analyzes the buyer's particular mix of crypto assets and ultimately determines their reliable purchasing power - assuring the seller of sufficient available equity with cryptographic analysis. This patent-pending analysis provides better-than-cash validation of the buyer's access to funds. Additionally, RealOpen presents cash to the seller by converting crypto into cash immediately before closing. Here's how the process works:

1. Find your house: work with our agents or on your own to find your dream house. Whether it's on the market or not, RealOpen will facilitate your offer.
2. Verify your crypto assets: Link your wallet with RealOpen so we can prove that you have access to the funds necessary for the purchase. Without RealOpen, you must liquidate your crypto now to get a proof-of-funds letter from the bank. This forces you to hold uninvested cash and triggers a tax event (whether your offer is accepted or not). RealOpen defers your taxable event until closing is guaranteed.
3. Submit your all-crypto offer: Work with your RealOpen agent to finalize contingencies, terms, and timing.
4. A RealOpen agent presents the seller with an all-cash offer: We translate between an all-crypto and all-cash offer under the hood to make your offer one of the strongest on the market.
5. Enter escrow or walk away risk-free: If your offer is accepted, we will convert just enough crypto for your good faith deposit. If your offer is not accepted, no loss, no foul. Your crypto is still safe in its wallet, and you're able to work with one of our agents, or on your own, to find another property to purchase.
6. Only sell the required crypto on closing day: Immediately prior to closing, we convert the remaining sum of your offer from crypto into cash. All client orders are processed 24/7 by our institutional OTC desk with access to deep pools of liquidity.

Put simply, without RealOpen there are benefits to purchasing a home with crypto, but the process is complicated and risky. With RealOpen, both buyers and sellers will experience all the benefits, with easy and fast transactions and with no risk involved. Curious to learn more? Get exclusive access on the VIP list or connect with one of our dedicated RealOpen Agents to stay in the loop with news about everything RealOpen - from luxury listings to exclusive RealOpen events.