Real Estate Coin (cryptocurrency) is a platform for investing in U.K. real estate. Our mission is to democratize access to real estate investment opportunities, curated by a team of real estate professionals.
Ownership of these real estate properties is denominated by digital tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Ownership in most real estate properties is determined by paper deeds. Real Estate Coin replaces paper deeds with digital tokens; a new mechanism for asset ownership, based on the Ethereum blockchain.
The digitization of the a paper deed into a digital token offers unique advantages in real estate ownership, which are explored in other areas of the FAQ.
Who can invest with REC? Am I able to invest?
Real Estate Coin, REC, is available for almost everyone to invest in real estate with!
All citizens of European and North and South American countries, and most of Asian countries, can sign up and invest in REC coins.
The only countries that REC does NOT work with are the following:
- Belarus
- Burma
- Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
- Cuba
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Iran
- Iraq
- Liberia
- North Korea
- Sudan
- Syria
- Vatican
- Zimbabwe
RE coin is the name of the company. ‘Real Estate Coin’ is a hybrid of the word realty, Real Estate property and Coin/ token. Real Tokens are the purchasable asset; the digital representation of ownership in the LTD, LLC, LLP that owns the deed to the property.
What is a token? What is ‘tokenization’
Tokens
Tokens on Ethereum can come to represent any and everything, as determined by the issuer of the token. This is how real world assets like real estate, dollars, or gold can come to be traded, invested, borrowed or lent on Ethereum.
Usually, ownership over assets is represented by a piece of paper. This piece of paper is a symbol of ownership of the asset in question.
- House or Building: a paper deed
- Car: a paper title
- Stock: a paper certificate
- Bond: a paper treasury note
- Cash: a paper dollar/euro/peso
Similarly, a ‘token’ is a digital symbol of ownership. On Ethereum, you own a token in the same way you own the deed to a house. The piece of paper isn’t necessarily the valuable thing; it just symbolizing ownership.
A token is a digital possession. Bitcoin was the first digital token. A token is a digital asset that only exists on the internet. Unlike most files, images or data on computers or the internet, tokens cannot be duplicated. When you send someone a token you cannot keep a copy yourself.
A ‘token’ is the term adopted by the blockchain, cryptocurrency and crypto-asset world. A ‘token’ is a symbol of ownership over something. What that thing ‘is’, is very flexible. Some tokens represent US Dollars, others tokens represent Gold. Cryptocurrrencies like Bitcoin and Ether are themselves tokens.
Tokenization
‘Tokenization’ refers to the process of defining ownership over something as ownership in a digital token on Ethereum. Companies like Circle have produced tokenized Dollars, Paxos has produced tokenized gold, and now Real Estate Coin has produced tokenized real estate!
Tokenization refers to the process to which an ‘off-chain asset’ becomes represent ‘on-chain’. On-chain refers to being included in the Ethereum blockchain. This is involves process requiring legal structure and compliance, and depends on every jurisdiction and asset class.
We offer REC RealTokens pursuant to two exemptions under the Act; one for sale to Investors. To be in compliance with provisions of the Act and its exemptions we are required to provide full, fair and accurate disclosure of all aspects, including risks and restrictions on transferability and resale, of your purchase and ownership of a RealToken so you are in a position to make an informed investment decision. Our detailed Private Placement Memorandum, Subscription Documentation and commitment to provide ongoing property operating results and market evaluation relative to each REC RealToken.
What does the purchase process look like? How long does it take?
Purchasing tokenized real estate is an easy process! However, there are a few steps that must be taken first.
1. Submit your ID Verification
The first step is to submit a picture of your ID, a selfie, and your preferred Ethereum address to your user-account.
2. Purchase real estate
This is the fun part! Browse the Marketplace and select your favorite property to purchase. Checkout and pay with your credit card or with cryptocurrencies, via Coinbase Commerce and Utrust.
3. Sign the Purchase Agreement
Once you have gone through steps 1 and 2, an email will be sent to your inbox from HelloSign with documents to sign. These documents are the legal documents that link the token to the property as well as provide further details as to the structure of the legal ownership of the property.
4. Receive the token(s)!
Once you have signed the Purchase Agreement, your tokens will be delivered to the Ethereum address that you added in step 1!
What can I do with my real estate Tokens?
In addition to owning digital assets, Ethereum enables financial activity via applications built into the platform. Users can use their digital assets inside of Ethereum applications. Trading & exchange, borrowing & lending, derivative and prediction markets are all possible activities on Ethereum that leverage digital assets.
Financial applications on Ethereum can offer basic financial services to those that are not able to access them in their local region. Many Ethereum applications offer savings accounts or investment tools for its users. Unlike traditional financial services like Banks, where you give up ownership over your assets and trust that the Bank will keep them safe, Ethereum applications allow you to retain complete ownership over your digital assets while you use them inside of financial applications.
How do I receive the rental income?
Rental payments are paid automatically to Ethereum wallets that hold the RealTokens. Rent payments go wherever RealTokens are located, so by holding the RealTokens inside your Ethereum wallet, you automatically will be receiving rent.
What are the benefits of tokenized real estate?
RE Coins sells real estate property through the internet, allowing real estate to be purchased from nearly anywhere in the world. RE COINS properties are fractionalizable, so suitable investors can invest any amount that fits their needs. Additionally, RE Coins has reduced the time to purchase real estate from a minimum of 30 days and numerous steps with third parties, to just 30 minutes and on your phone or computer.
With tokenization, real estate investments can be made affordable to nearly anyone.
Real estate is also a notoriously illiquid industry. By turning real estate into digital tokens, real estate can be accessed by far larger numbers of potential buyers, both due to fractionalization of the tokens and the potential reach of internet-based markets. The larger market participants that digital tokens are able to reach increases the liquidity of real estate. Additionally, financial applications on Ethereum offer solutions to accessing liquidity for valuable tokenized assets.
Yes, you can sell your tokens to us or on any exchange once they are listed.
By selling on the website, you know the price you are selling the tokens for, but it is not an instantaneous process.
RE Coin has never done an ICO, or any sort of token-sale event other than the sale of RealTokens that represent the real estate assets available on the website.