7,000 Bidders Itching to Purchase…
Two hot topics, Real Estate and Crypto, are merging together this week in what could be the first home auctioned off as an NFT. The property is located in Gulfport, Florida and is being brokered by Propy and Heckler Realty. What happens when somebody wins the bid? They receive an NFT, or Non-Fungible Token, a digital token that will record the winner’s proof of ownership on an online ledger. The winner will receive ownership of the LLC that currently holds one single asset, the property up for sale. Anyone seeking to bid on the property must have proof of $650,000 in Ether in their cryptocurrency wallet.
Gulfport, FL Residence Listed as an NFT Auction
Amy Heckler, the broker for the property and founder of Heckler Realty Group, has stated that more than 7,000 people have signed up to bid on the residence. The home’s seller is Leslie Alessandra, founder of a Tampa-based blockchain company. She not only wants to sell because it is a great time in the market, but more importantly to prove the technology’s value. She approached Heckler, who was reluctant at first, but decided this could be a great opportunity. Propy sold Tech entrepreneur Michael Arrington’s apartment in Ukraine for 96 Ether last year.
NFTs have been making moves for a while now, impacting large markets like art, with some NFT artworks selling for as much as almost $70mm USD. People spent $44bil buying and selling NFTs in 2021 according to Chainanalysis, who speculates even more transactions will be done in 2022.
NFTs could have a huge impact on the Real Estate market. Enthusiasts of the combination of the two say it could reduce closing costs as well as speed up transactions, as the method of title transferring and up to 3 months time needed to close could become obsolete. However, cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and are sometimes subject to high transaction fees.