How to Use Blockchain for Title Registration in Real Estate?

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain uses distributed ledger technology to store data in different servers globally while letting anyone on the network see everyone else's entries in real-time. This makes it really difficult for a hacker to hack the system and gain control of it.

How Blockchain is Helpful in The Real Estate Industry?

Blockchain technology has great influence on the real estate industry. It has reduced costs by cutting the middleman and connecting buyers and sellers to connect with one another. Blockchain technology has also helped to systematize the practice of fractional ownership of real estate.

How to Use Blockchain for Title Registration in Real Estate?

Blockchain technology creates the opportunity to make a permanent and safe record of ownership of land or real estate. The data for the real estate can directly be sent to the owner’s account. Be it the status of the land ( sold or not )or any structural advancements is transferred to the new owner.

Concept development by JTC

Update: This demo has been updated by representing a property using ERC721 token. See Why ERC721 is better than ERC20 to represent a real estate property

In this blog, we will cover how it can be used to digitize title registration which then helps to do a thorough search with confidence on title history by eliminating any chances of forgeries in the chain of title. The rest of the blog talks about a proof of concept developed by blockchains experts at JTC for title registration. We use Ethereum public blockchain to record the transactions.

It starts by representing each property as an ERC20 token. A company (or maybe county) can launch a custom ERC20 token to represent a property. In the example below, Title Co. is launching token named JTC to represent a property.

Title Co. is prompted to sign and submit the transaction

Behind the scene, it deploys a smart contract and creates JTC token. Title Co. wallet now has all the JTC tokens

JTC Token on ETH Blockchain

Now, consider the scenario where Ap #867-859 Sit Rd. Azusa New York 39531 is up for sell and a buyer wants to buy the property.

At this stage, by verifying the ownership documents manually for the very first time, Title Co. will issue a JTC token to the existing owner. This will be recorded on blockchain. Once the transaction is signed and submitted by Title Co., one JTC token is assigned to Theodore Lower wallet.

Title Co. issues a JTC token to Theodore Lowe who is existing owner of the property.

Screenshot of Theodore account after JTC token transfer

We also built a title history viewer which queries all the transactions about this property from blockchain. At this stage, it only shows one owner.

Property History Viewer after a token is assigned to Theodore Lowe.

Now consider Iris Watson is interested to buy this property. Title Co. will use the ‘Sell property’ function. The form will auto-populate the latest owner of the property from blockchain. It also allow to nominate a notary who will sign the deed along with grantor (seller) and grantee (buyer).

Once Title Co. will submit this form, it will create a deed and send it for e-signature to existing owner, buyer, and notary.

Sample deed document received and signed by Theodore

Once everyone signs the document, the token related to property Ap #867-859 Sit Rd. Azusa New York 39531 is transferred to new owner. The deed is recorded on blockchain as well. Property owner explorer now shows Iris as the new owner along with the ability to see the signed deed.

History explorer shows Iris as the new owner along with the ability to see the signed deed

Iris Metamask account showing he has one JTC token now.

Since blockchain guarantees that transaction once recorded cannot be tampered with, the software we built demonstrates how it can now be used to transfer and record the title history and quickly scan through all previous titles as well.

The system is also capable to send a physical copy of the signed deed automatically to local county.

What’s the biggest thing you’re struggling with right now that we as a technology consulting company can help you with? Feel free to reach out to us at info@jalantechnologies.com. We hope our assistance will help!