NFTs have entered the real estate market.  And the Real Estate Tech and Fin Tech conversations.  For most, it’s even unclear what NFTs are, or how they are created, let alone what their impact on the real estate industry might be.  Are NFTs to become the standard mechanism for buying and selling property, and should agents worry?  

What most people know of NFTs are spectacularized examples of digital collectibles trading for outlandish prices with increasing frequency and popularity (especially when involving celebrities).  A Japanese rainbow-powered, pop-tart kitty (the Nyan Cat) selling for nearly $600,000.  Ten thousand iterations of an apathetic monkey (called Bored Ape), selling for as much as $2.85M.  The sector is hot and moving faster than EVs.  According to BNP Paribas, in 2021 the total value of all NFT transactions worldwide jumped 21,350% to more than $17 billion, from “only” $82.5 million in 2020.

The du jour trend of digital “art” traded on a digital exchange sort of makes sense.  But trading a physical thing, and in this case the most important physical asset that consumers might ever purchase, doesn’t compute.  Spectacular cognitive dissonance.

HOW CAN REAL ESTATE BECOME AN NFT? 

A year ago, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington sold his apartment in Kiev, Ukraine using an NFT for 93 Ether (ETH), or roughly $93,000.  This year, a five-bedroom, three-and-half-bath home located near Tampa Florida home, was purchased for  ETH worth approximately $650,000.  So far, NFTs have been used to purchase and lease everything from apartments and mansions to office buildings and hotels.

Let’s step back and walk it through.  NFTs are Non-Fungible Tokens, a new type of digital asset that is minted, and stored, on a blockchain.  What is a blockchain?  In simple terms, a blockchain is a digital ledger.  When you “mint” an NFT, you are buying a piece of code that lives on the blockchain (specifically the Ethereum Blockchain).  This code can be anything you want, but it must be unique.  You are essentially creating a new smart contract on the Ethereum network that defines the NFT.  This smart contract can be used for digital collectibles, gaming tokens, or the ownership rights for real estate.

WHY NFTS MAY APPEAR BETTER-LOOKING THAN OLD-FASHIONED TRANSACTIONS 

Besides being trendy, buying and selling real estate as an NFT seems a safe and efficient way to transfer ownership of property.  Once an NFT is minted, the code is immutable and cannot be altered. The transaction is verified by computers around the world called “miners.”  This makes NFTs tamper-proof and secure, preventing real estate fraud or theft. The smart contracts that power NFTs can automate many of the tasks traditionally performed by the intermediaries of a real estate purchases, reducing time and cost. The NFT can include all relevant documents, such as the title deed, which can be verified and transferred with a single click.  The real estate NFT can record and track the entire history of the property, from ownership to mortgage payments.  NFTs are divisible into smaller units, making them especially useful with real estate asset nuances, like fractional ownership and rentals.

A NEW KIND OF TRANSACTION, BUT STILL A HOUSE  

In this discussion, the NFT is not a bad or disruptive thing, it’s just a transactional tool.  Its impact on the agency and brokerage ultimately depends on how it’s used.  NFT is one, dependent variable in the overall equation.

Because the underlying asset of being exchanged is still a house (or condo, or building), there is some fine print that cannot be ignored.  Even with all the relevant documentation stored securely on the blockchain, and the crypto payment for the deed is confirmed, the transfer of property is still not complete and cannot be completed with the click of a button.  The sale of real estate as an NFT is not officially real, in the real world, unless it’s recorded with the municipality.  This is a showstopper without a creative workaround.  A cliffhanger resolved in the next, Are NFTs Good for Real Estate, blog.  Stay tuned… 

Global voice

Purlin data science tech star Hasmik Galstyan was featured as a Guest Speaker for the 2021 Women in Data Science (WiDS) Worldwide Conference.  The global initiative spanned 60+ countries, 150+ regional events, and included over 100,000 data science participants. Stanford University began hosting this event five years ago to inspire and educate data scientists worldwide, regardless of gender, and to support women in the field.  Purlin has shared this goal from inception, purveying the best possible global team without bias, while actively recruiting and developing top female talent.

AI with purpose

Hasmik’s presentation for the WiDS Worldwide Conference is part of the “Empowering Females through Capacity Building to promote technology in non-technology sectors” program, implemented by IFC (World Bank Group) and UK Government’s Good Governance Fund.  The project aims to assist in the development of an advanced understanding of the link between data science and politics, industry, government, engineering, etc., and to promote the role of female scientists in data science and their engagement in society.  Topics presented covered a wide range of domains from data ethics and privacy, healthcare, data visualization and more.

Hasmik is a key member of the Purlin technology team, responsible for creating the most advanced intelligent personalization software platform in real estate tech.  It deploys a unique combination of computer vision, image processing, natural language processing, machine learning, behavioral modeling, and AI to unlock value for brokers, agents and lenders through an intelligently personalized, premium experience.  She comes from Labz.AI, a leader in data-driven solutions powered by strong mathematical research, with a mission of bringing the benefits of AI to various industries and impacting millions of human lives.  The core and distinguishing tenet that rules all of Purlin’s development is the belief that AI must solve human problem with human solutions.  

Sponsorship worldwide

WiDS Corporate sponsors include Facebook, Intuit, Walmart Global Tech, Wells Fargo, IBM, General Motors, Google, MatchWorks, Microsoft, Total and SAP.  Stanford sponsors include Stanford Data Science, Stanford Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME) and Mobilize Center for Data Integration to Insight.

Wise Agent and Purlin, leaders in real estate CRM and real estate AI, respectively, have found a way to change the lead generation conversation. From more leads, to better leads.  From higher conversion, to easier conversion.  From automation, to intelligent personalization. With the right combination CRM expertise and AI tools, agents can deepen their relationships with the clients from before they are leads to well after the transaction.  All of this with a lot less work.  The result is happier clients and better business.   

Connect early & personally 

With Purlin’s StyleExplorer^TM agents can start creating a premium experience for potential clients even before they start comparing listings.  It also enables agents to connect, and self-promote, easily through Facebook and other social media platforms.

Through a co-branded digital experience from Purlin, agents can offer buyers and sellers an incomparable visual exploration of homes on the market by style, feature and room.  Their clients can “peek” into neighbors’ homes and look inside the valuations of neighborhood comps, akin to doing their own virtual CMAs.  StyleExplorer^TM learns as clients go, and uses intelligent personalization to continually make searches better based on search behaviors.  They feel empowered and looked after. The agent is the hero, and the whole experience is branded with the agent’s mark and smile. 

Engage socially

The intelligent personalization of StyleExplorer^TM can be easily unleashed and amplified on social media.  Facebook and other social media sharing is embedded in the process, requiring no other applications or extra manual entry (see images below).  Agents can demonstrate their expertise and experience in a market by creating and posting boards based on styles, and even specific rooms, in specific neighborhoods.  Or they can post individual listings, beautifully packaged with complete details and links to take the transaction forward.  The new behavior and interest data collected through the experience improves the agent’s ability to create and powerfully target audiences compliantly.  

Nurture precisely

Wise Agent and Purlin work in harmony to help agents build relationships with their leads and clients. With Wise Agent’s management system, when a new potential client comes in from Purlin, agents can automatically add them to specific categories and drip campaigns based on their interactions within Purlin. 

Ultimately all of the details from lead interactions on Purlin will be included in their contact profile in Wise Agent. That way, everything an agent needs to know will be accessible in one place.  Centralization of client information allows agents to stay in touch with leads to build stronger relationships and convert them to paying customers. 

Wise Agent combined with Purlin adds more value to CRM by delivering more insight into who leads are and what they want, so agents can begin building stronger relationships.