Topic: Lakefront property for sale, bitcoin accepted - page 3. (Read 5129 times)

None of us is related to you so you'll have to understand if we need a slightly higher burden of proof here.

I think what you don't understand is the risk for the buyer.

I'm not saying you can't execute a purchase without a lawyer. I'm saying the buyer can't trust the seller when Bitcoins are involved.

Let me explain:


Here's a little background on me. I'm 12 years old. I own around 30,000 shares in Berkshire Hathaway. I've been developing .NET apps for 38 years. I wrote Linux. So, I think I know all about how the world works. Second, I have bought and sold about a dozen castles and all whilst holding my breath.

Some of this might not be true but you can trust me because I'm confirming it is.



I don't think you understand how Bitcoin works socially. You might have a perfect grasp of the technical issues but clearly you have no understanding of the community here.



Well all of your 'proof' that you're well versed in selling property was never called into doubt.

The reason you don't understand Bitcoin is you don't appreciate the risk the seller puts themselves into when they're buying off you if no escrow or lawyers are involved.

I'm sure you're a stand-up guy, after all, you've proven it beyond a doubt with the sheer force of your convictions.



We get it. You're an amazing guy and everyone should trust you.

Only, that's really not how things work around here. Here, the standard of proof is a little higher than a few posts explicitly stating how awesome you are.



This isn't Missouri.



You could think about it from the buyers point of view. As a mental exercise, imagine you're buying a house off of me.

I'm 12. I'm a stand-up kinda guy. You can trust me. I've done this before...

The actual transfer happens at a title company.  You sit in a room with an agent who confirms that the deed is transferred from person (A) to person (B).  At that time, the bitcoin is transferred to my wallet, I wait for confirmation, shake hands, end everyone is happy.

I take it few people in this thread making critical comments have ever bought or sold land.  It's really not that complicated.

John

What if the seller don't give you the land after you had transfer the Bitcoin?

It's not quite right for me. But I led outdoor trips in that area and it is beautiful country.

I don't see anything wrong with the OP's posting:
- meet to inspect the property
- agree on inspections, final sales price, escrow / title company

that's it... real estate escrow will handle the transaction for a fee.

The biggest issue I see here is finding a RE escrow company willing to verifying if bitcoins cleared or not.

Salesprice will have to be provided in $ to county recorder.

The OP is right by saying that RE transactions can be much more straight forward as they usually are with agents taking a fortune for supplying a standardized  3 sheeter contract.

Good Luck!

Can you explain why it is risky?  A bag of cash could be counterfeited, a cashiers check could be fake, but bitcoin to my wallet address is much safer by comparison.  Just what is risky about accepting bitcoin in payment over, say, a bag of cash or a cashier's check?

Do you mean it is risky in that the price of bitcoin is volatile?  I can convert bitcoin to fiat easily enough; I do it all the time.

Buying property with Bitcoin is risky, I wouldn't do that if I were you.

I would like to add to this, I purchased a 15 acre farm with a 100 year old farmhouse, and barn, based on a hand written note I signed.  No real estate agent was involved.  No title company either.  All I did was go down to the county courthouse and file a document.  I'm not saying I would recommend it, but since I was buying the property from my dad because he was dying of cancer and needed some cash fast, that is what happened.  My point here is this, you do *not* need a real estate agent, an attorney, escrow, or anyone else to sell rural property in the state of Missouri.  You file a transfer of deed document with the county courthouse and that's it.  Done. Sold.

Now, I would not recommend that course of action when selling property between most people. I would strongly recommend that the buyer and seller engage a title company.

I later sold that same property to someone else who saw a sign I stuck in the front yard, without a bank, escrow, real estate agent or anyone other than just a title company to file the paperwork with the county.

What I want to understand is why anyone here thinks you *must* have a real-estate agent, escrow, an attorney, a bank, or anyone else involved to file a sheet of paper with the county courthouse?!?!?

John

Ok, a little bit of background.  I'm 52 years old.  I own around $12,000 worth of bitcoin.  I've been a professional software engineer for over 30 years.  I have written open source bitcoin software.  So, I think I know a little bit about bitcoin.  Second, I have bought and sold numerous properties in my lifetime, some with, and some without, real estate agents; always with a title company to handle the transfer of deed.

I'm curious what do you think I don't understand here?

I have a piece of property.  I own it 100%.  There are no liens of any kind on the property.  I offer it for sale.  For cash or bitcoins.  I don't care.  I could sell it for a nice sports car if I wanted to.  I could sell it for whatever I wish.  It's my property, I can do with it as I please.  The buyer needs to know that the property deed transfers from my possession to theirs without any outstanding liens.  The title company, for a fee, handles this bit of paperwork.  Their interest in the transaction is simply that the deed is clear and that the new owner holds title to the property.  It is none of their concern whether I sold it for bitcoins or a kiss on the cheek.  We are paying them to make sure that the title is clear and changes hands.

So, my question remains, just what is different about paying for property with bitcoins versus dollars, gold bullion, sheep, or a pat on the back?

I can just give my property to someone else, but even then you still have to file the paperwork with the county for the deed transfer to occur.  

Why do I need escrow?  Why do I need a real estate agent?  Why do I need to involve a bank?  All I need is a title company to handle the paperwork.

Selling a few acres of land just isn't that complicated in rural Missouri.  

Since this is a bitcoin discussion forum, the real question at hand is this.  What is the difference between selling real-estate for bitcoin versus a backpack of cash?  Or, are you saying that I can't sell real-estate for a back-pack of cash either?

I've done this a bunch of times before, so please tell me what I'm doing wrong here....

John

It's only safer for the recipient.

Also, these boards are full of people who have never bought property before so they don't understand how it's normally done.

Having said that, your suggestion to do it all without banks, escrow, real-estate agents suggests to me you don't know how Bitcoin works.

I wouldn't expect anyone to buy a piece of property without looking at it first and, most of the time, having the sale takes place in person (though this is not always done, sometimes the buyer just sends a legal representative).  To do a real estate transaction you use a title company to actually finalize the deal.  They will do a deed search to make sure that the property is legally defined, owned by the person who says owns it, and has no liens.  They handle signing the documents and doing the actual legal transfer.  The title deed company gets paid several hundred dollars for this service and is designed to protect both the buyer and seller.  And, with vacant land, these kinds of transactions are much simpler than if a home is involved. 

I never meant that anyone would just send bitcoin to my wallet and expect a deed to the land to show up in the mail.  What I meant is that the transaction could be done without involving banks, or escrow, or real-estate agents, and that is kind of a cool thing.

My question is why do you think doing a real-estate deal with bitcoin would be any different than doing a real-estate deal with a briefcase of cash?  The bitcoin is a tad bit safer I would think.

John

If I was buying property I would go meet the guy face to face of course.

you think someone is going to send you 74 thousand dollars with no trust and no verification

What do you mean?  I own the property outright.  The only thing we have to do is set up a title exchange, there will be some small fee for that, but that's all you need to do.  Because we will be using bitcoin we don't even need escrow or anything.  We just need someone to do the title-deed process.  I've sold property before that I owned outright without real-estate agents, it doesn't have to be that complicated.

John

 

Good luck if you really think it works this way

I know there are a bunch of you guys sitting on stacks of bitcoins that you bought, probably for $1 apiece, back a few years ago just waiting for something cool to buy with them.  How about this?  Five acres of land in Lake of the Ozarks Missouri with over a $1,000 foot of shoreline all for just 585 bitcoins (relative to today's current exchange rate).

You gotta admit, owning a piece of land that you can build your dream home on with your bitcoin fortune is probably pretty tempting.  No real-estate agent, no nonsense, just a straightforward sale from me to you.  Send 585 bitcoins to my wallet and we will get the title transferred over into your name. 

I've held this property for a number of years, it has relatively low taxes (just about $350 a year).  My wife and I bought it when we originally thought we would build a retirement home there.  However, since then, we have changed our idea of what retirement looks like.

Here's the link to a website I posted with information about the property.  Feel feel to contact me if you have more questions.

http://lake-of-the-ozarks-lakefront-property.blogspot.com/