How this programmer used cryptocurrency to buy his $650k dream home

Terrance Leonard is a software engineer in Washington, D.C, and a cryptocurrency investor. He started saving in cryptocurrency in 2019 with the aim of becoming financially independent. He also planned to save enough in cryptocurrency so he could cash out to either buy a house or rent a spacious home.

Leonard, like many risk investors, took a big bet on cryptocurrency by selling his stocks which were valued at around 400,000 and moved all into cryptocurrency.

“When I realized the potential of crypto — and I realized how well it was doing for me in the beginning — I sold all of my stocks, my 401(k), everything and moved it all into crypto,” Leonard told Market Watch.

Leonard purchased his first home using a veteran loan scheme. For a while now, the software engineer has been mulling moving into a bigger house with a large compound for his dog to play in as well as a garage to park his car.

Then he saw a property being advertised for sale. The property, which was priced at $650,000, suited the specifications that he wanted. Instead of paying in cash, Leonard opted to use his cryptocurrency investment to pay for the property.

The concept of buying a house using cryptocurrency is not yet mainstream and so Leonard discovered that the process wasn’t simple as transferring his cryptocurrency holdings to the relevant parties. “There was back and forth between the lender and the title company making sure that was OK,” he noted.

Another issue he encountered was ‘proof of fund’ to buy the house using cryptocurrency. In the past, he had used a loan from the VA loan program to acquire his first house and the process was hustle-free. However, using cryptocurrency was not that simple. He needed to cash it out into a bank account as stock investors do in order to purchase the property.

The process could have been quite simple for Leonard had he bought the house from real estate companies that accept cryptocurrency. Although a few companies listed homes and gave indications of accepting payments using cryptocurrency, those properties did not meet the specifications he wanted.

“We had the lowest interest rates in a very long time, so I was not going to pass up on that opportunity,” he said, adding that he’s more likely to see a better return on his crypto investments, even after taxes, than he would if he sank all his money into the home.

The software engineer attributes his ability to acquire the $650,000 property to the investment strategy he adopted. According to him, had he not invested in cryptocurrency, he couldn’t have acquired his dream home when it came to the market.