A woman is selling her Tampa Bay Home as an NFT on Tuesday, February 8. The owner will sell the Gulfport house for over half a million dollars. This is the first time a piece of real estate in the United States will be sold using crypto-currency.
What is an NFT?
An NFT, or non-fungible token, is a unique thing, like a playing card. This is in contrast to something like bitcoin, which is fungible. Because when you trade one bitcoin for another and you have exactly the same thing — one bitcoin. This is why people use NFTs to sell unique pieces of art and music. An NFT is stored on blockchain, which is a type of decentralized ledger. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Gulfport home will be converted to a digitally secure certificate of authenticity, similar to a deed.
A whole new world
According to the Tampa Bay Times, homeowner Leslie Alessandra is going to auction off her home as an NFT or non-fungible token. Alessandra is a real estate investor and founder of DeFi Unlimited, a Tampa Bay blockchain company. She is selling her home as an NFT to showcase the technology. She wants people to see how they can use this technology in the future.
Is this just hype or is there a real world application? (The auction) is really to stimulate conversation
Leslie Alessandra, homeowner
Turning property rights into a digital artifact, like an NFT, means people can sell hopes with a simple Venmo transaction. This is achievable by putting ownership documents under a limited liability corporation. Essentially, making the NFT an LLC.
The future of real estate?
Using NFTs to sell real estate is another step in connecting the digital and physical worlds of commerce. However, NFTs are still quite new and volatile, so it’s unclear if this is going to become a popular method for selling homes in the future — or just a trend. Also, sales are still recorded with the county in order to transfer ownership rights. Unless a legal entity owns the property.
Although the real estate industry can be slow to embrace change, the Tampa Bay housing market is certainly the place for new and exciting trends. A record number of investors are buying property in the region, making it difficult for first-time homebuyers.