How to Use Bitcoin to Buy a Home

If you purchased a bitcoin sometime in the past 10 years and held on to it, congratulations! You just made a serious profit.

Bitcoin’s record-breaking high price of more than $100,000 could help some cryptocurrency investors finally achieve their goal of purchasing a home.

While a growing number of sellers are accepting bitcoin as payment, there are still a few hoops investors will need to jump through to turn their crypto into a physical living arrangement.

Here’s a look at how to use bitcoin to buy a home, plus a few listings that currently accept the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin’s astronomical rise

If you purchased a bitcoin sometime in the past 10 years and held on to it, congratulations! You just made a serious profit.

In the past eight years, the price of a single bitcoin has increased in value from $453 to more than $100,000.

The record-breaking high comes after President-elect Donald Trump announced that he’d nominated Paul Atkins as the next head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins is believed to be more pro-cryptocurrency than his predecessors

“There is anticipation that the new administration is going to be somewhat more favorable to crypto than the old administration was,” Andrew O’Neill, digital assets expert at S&P Global, told the BBC.

Cryptocurrency’s rocky history

The cryptocurrency market is also notoriously unstable. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, bitcoin slipped from $10,000 to $4,000 a coin in less than 48 hours.

Even still, some investors are making bank on their crypto investments—and are now looking to purchase real estate.

Miami, New York, and San Francisco lead the way in crypto real estate transactions

According to Realtor.com®, sellers in Miami, New York, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, and Colorado are accepting bitcoin more frequently.

“Miami is the U.S. crypto hub,” Johnny Schiro, senior vice president of business development at RealOpen, told Realtor.com®. “New York, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, and Colorado also have significant crypto real estate activity.”

How to use bitcoin to buy a home

There are several ways to use bitcoin to buy a home. One option is to work with an agency like RealOpen, which allows buyers to use bitcoin to purchase real estate.

Instead of working with only sellers willing to accept bitcoin, RealOpen converts your cryptocurrency into cash for the seller—for a fee.

Another option is to use a company like Milo, which allows you to take out a crypto-backed mortgage. The company allows cryptocurrency holders to use their virtual money as collateral when taking out a mortgage.

Buyers can borrow up to $5 million against their bitcoin, ethereum, or USDC currency.

Of course, the easiest way to purchase a home with crypto is to cash it out, but you’ll want to consider the tax implications of such a move.

In many cases, you’ll be required to pay a capital gains tax on any earnings you make on the market, and those taxes could easily add up.

A smaller number of sellers is willing to trade crypto for property, some of which can be found on Propy, a blockchain real estate company that supports blockchain transitions.

Propy is attractive to some crypto investors because it allows users to keep their coins in escrow while the sale is finalized.

So, where can you buy with a bitcoin or two right now?

30441 Francis St, Sebring, FL 33870

(Realtor.com)

3503 Illinois Ave, Sebring, FL 33870

(Realtor.com)

9000 Spyrock Rd, Laytonville, CA 95454

Price: $215,000 Cryptocurrency accepted: bitcoin, ethereum

(Realtor.com)

14375 Diablo Dr, Brooksville, FL 34613

Price: $135,000 Cryptocurrency accepted: bitcoin, ethereum, XRP, USDC

(https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Twentynine-Palms_CA)

1644 Stuart Square Cir, Myrtle Beach, SC 29577 

Price: $242,000 Cryptocurrency accepted: bitcoin, ethereum

(Realtor.com)