• The first real-estate transaction using bitcoin in Louisville, Kentucky was recently completed.
• The purchase took about eight seconds and cost $0.70 in transaction fees.
• The owner and president of Millennial Title Company believes bitcoin will be used in real estate transactions more often in the near future.

Louisville, Kentucky made local history with its first real estate purchase made in bitcoin which only took about eight seconds, according to a report from The Courier Journal.

“I told the buyer I didn’t know if [using Bitcoin to buy the home] was possible,” Ashley Brown, a real estate agent with Louisville-based Homepage Realty, told The Courier Journal. “…I wasn’t sure if it was legal.”

The seller of the property was reportedly looking to invest profits from the sale into bitcoin by liquidating multiple properties. The buyer had taken an interest in Bitcoin some years prior and suggested he could make the purchase using BTC. Up until that moment in February, there was no record of a bitcoin purchase for real estate in the area, according to local officials spoken to by The Courier Journal.

The property was sold for $65,000, according to Brown. After commission, title fees and the recording fees being paid in dollars, the final purchasing price was “ roughly 1 Bitcoin” according to the report, which was worth approximately $33,000 at press time.

“I’m happy that I can help try and bring this technology to the future,” the buyer told The Courier Journal. “There’s so many uses for [Bitcoin], and I think we’re at the very, very early stages of it. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes.”

Brown asked for assistance from Chip Ridge, president and owner of Millennial Title Company which navigates real estate settlement services who advised him throughout the process.

Ridge noted that normal paperwork and processes were completed, but ultimately, the actual purchase of the home was a direct transfer from one Bitcoin wallet to another. The Courier Journal reports the transaction took about eight seconds to complete, and instead of paying a wire fee of $25-$30, the fee was only $0.70.

“I think in two to three years, [using Bitcoin in home purchases] will be more commonplace,” Ridge said.

Crypto Home Buying Update 4-24-23

People can now buy and sell real estate with crypto on what’s being billed as the first US bitcoin property marketplace

Carla Mozée 

• What’s billed as the first bitcoin real estate marketplace for US properties was launched this week. 
• “Real estate commerce needs to be changed,” the CEO of MyEListing.com said.
• Texas properties were the first available on the platform, which is integrated with Coinbase Commerce. 

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People who want to use cryptocurrency to buy and sell real estate in the US will soon be able to do so via a platform billed as the first bitcoin real estate marketplace in the country. 

The launch of the service from MyEListing.com, a commercial real estate listings and data platform, was rolled out this week, bringing together the newest asset class with the multi-trillion dollar US commercial and residential property markets. 

Texas properties were the first to be listed this week. In June, real estate in “other select states” will be listed by agents, brokers, and sellers. The company in its statement didn’t specify which states will carry listings. 

Transactions can be closed within one business day, which is about 50 times faster than current averages, the company said. The marketplace is open to people worldwide and is integrated with Coinbase Commerce, a section of the crypto exchange that allows merchants to accept digital coin payments. 

The platform will push innovation in both the crypto and real estate industries, Caleb Richter, MyEListing.com’s CEO, said in a statement. 

“Real estate commerce needs to be changed. It’s hard enough as it is to buy property in your local neighborhood, let alone in another state or country,” he said. 

Bitcoin Magazine noted that other real estate firms elsewhere in the world were accepting bitcoin as payment. 

The launch arrives during a tumultuous period for the US housing and commercial property markets, with interest rates rapidly rising while a potential recession is brewing. Median home prices in March fell by the most since 2012, by 3.3% annually, according to Redfin. Meanwhile, lending standards for commercial real estate loans were expected to tighter further with a credit crunch forming, Bank of America said last month.

Bitcoin, pushing through a so-called crypto winter, has jumped by 65% this year. It traded down slightly on Friday to $27,511. Roughly 20% of Americans own cryptocurrencies, according to a Coinbase study carried out by Morning Consult published earlier this year.