Buying stock is fairly simple. You need to open a brokerage account, and the rest is as easy as clicking a few buttons. In fact, stock investments have become increasingly mainstream, as banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America have opened their own simplified brokerage services for customers.
The online brokerage system has also allowed for almost immediate purchases of these stocks and options. Trading has become effectively instantaneous and ubiquitous for everyone with an internet connection and a few dollars to invest.
This is not the case with purchases in real estate, however, even though the housing market in much of the world is increasing. Not only residential real estate is increasing either. The commercial real estate market has been rising as well.
Because of the increase in prices, and the inherent value in real property, investors and individuals alike are anxious to invest funds into the real estate market. However, real estate investments are notoriously problematic.
The only way to diversify into real estate is by purchasing real estate holdings as whole purchases. The high price tag of these investments means that owning more than one or two is difficult without large-scale capital. Further, purchases of real estate are complex and risky, with unknown repairs, maintenance, local market shifts, and title issues that can result in huge losses.
While there are ways to invest without whole property purchases, like REITs (real estate investment trusts) for example, these platforms are centralized and take large percentages of any profit or rent from their customers.
ATLANT is Redefining Real Estate
One company, ATLANT, is creating a new real estate investment system that allows for properties to be sold, purchased and rented in a decentralized way. This decentralized blockchain platform looks like it will radically change the way real estate is bought and sold.
For starters, decentralization changes the way investors purchase real estate. ATLANT uses its blockchain platform to ‘tokenize’ real estate investments. This means that investors can purchase a percentage share in real properties by using tokens, rather than having to buy entire properties. As ATLANT says, “Real estate assets are tokenized and freely tradable on digital asset exchanges, ensuring price transparency and discovery.”
ATLANT plans to offer its tokens, the ATL, via an initial token offering starting September 7, 2017. The tokens can be purchased using Ethereum and will allow owners to participate in the fractional real estate investment and transaction platform ATLANT provides.
This system also allows for a more secure real estate environment. Individual renters and buyers are able to store their transactions on the blockchain, making them both fully secure, and immutable as well.
For property owners seeking finance, the ATLANT platform removes the complexities of second mortgages by providing a way to leverage real assets via tokenization. Sellers can offer their property for ‘sale’ at the return rate of the token, and then pay off the tokenized portion, or relinquish it for auction.
Further, the ATLANT platform provides a way for investors to directly purchase token value in real estate properties with widely diverse value and location bases. Investors can own properties in Vail, Paris, and London, all at the same time, and without the complexities of multiple international purchases.
Finally, the democratized and decentralized system provides a way for buyers and sellers to interact directly with one another, removing the profiteering centralized hubs that make up most REITs.
Because the platform secures and decentralizes the tokenized asset, both buyer and seller information is private and protected. Fees paid to brokers or other escrow entities will be radically reduced for all parties since there is no centralized hub for transactions.
While buying stocks has grown more simple through the internet, purchasing real estate has not. However, the ATLANT platform has created a decentralized system that will make investing in value properties just as simple, and even more safe.