This Florida Home Will Become the First in the U.S. to Be Sold as an NFT

A Tampa Bay home in Gulfport will be auctioned off Tuesday as the first piece of U.S. real estate to be auctioned as an NFT.

The Spanish-inspired Gulfport property, located at 6315 11th Ave. S will start at $650,000, will be auctioned off online, hosted by Palo Alto-based real estate technology company Propy, who will mint the property rights into a digital token.

Last year, Propy sold TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington’s apartment in Kiev as an NFT – making this Florida addition the next development in the beginning stages of how NFTs can be used for real-world transactions.

Leslie Alessandra, the current owner of the property, is also a local real estate investor and founder of Tampa Bay blockchain company DeFi Unlimited, who said she chose to list the home as an NFT to showcase the use of the evolving technology.

Forget the deed, and look to the NFT

In this case, the NFT would represent the digital rights to the property, similar to the physical deed. For recording purposes, the NFT will serve as the legal LLC, allowing for the Gulfport home’s property rights and ownership documents to properly be protected.

“Is this just hype or is there a real world application? (The auction) is really to stimulate conversation,” Alessandra said in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times.

According to Alessandra, once minted, the property rights for the Gulfport home will also have a mural from a local artist attached to it, which will serve as an additional NFT.

Artist Derek Donnelly, known as Saint Pete, will create an indoor mural on one of the property’s exposed brick walls as part of the auction, lending favor to Tampa Bay one day immortalizing street art similar to his.

What’s the legal?

Of course, with any purchase of a property such as a home, that sale must be recorded with the county’s recorders office to legally transfer ownership rights. For this reason, a legal entity must exist in order to transfer the property, giving actual case studies where NFTs are used more visibility and applicability.

Indeed, the legal landscape is having to evolve quickly to Web3 and the metaverse, which incorporates fintech such as cryptocurrency and NFTs.

“There’s certainly something special about being the first, for sure. It’s kind of like having the first computer that was ever connected to the internet,” Alessandra said. “But I certainly hope that the owner will be someone that’s an advocate for blockchain and NFTs and it would be a representation of the future.”

The NFT home sale auction will take place on February 8, with over 2,000 people having already signed up.