A real estate investor purchased a three-bedroom house in South Carolina via an NFT marketplace over the weekend for $175,000 paid in USDC.
The purchase of 149 Cottage Lake Way, Columbia was made possible via Roofstock onChain, the web3 subsidiary of real estate company Roofstock. The buyer, real estate investor Adam Slipakoff, said he was able to buy a fully title-insured, rent-ready property with one click.
Founded in 2015, Roofstock specialises in single-family rental properties and has facilitated more than $5 billion in investment transactions to date.
This marks the first NFT sale by the company. The company’s chief blockchain officer, Geoff Thompson, called the sale a “major milestone” in providing a simple way for buyers to purchase rental properties.
Each rental property sold on its platform via NFT is owned by an individual single-purpose Limited Liability Company (LLC) registered in Wyoming and the NFT sold is associated with the sole ownership of the LLC, the company told The Block.
As buyers’ names need to be made public due to legal requirements, there is an initial set-up process for would-be buyers joining the site in which they mint a non-transferrable membership token.
This marks the membership token with a “verified buyer” flag, after which buyers can connect to an NFT marketplace and purchase a Home onChain NFT with a single click, resulting in sale and settlement.
“The sale of the NFT results in a change in the ownership of the LLC, and thus the underlying property,” a company spokesperson said.
