Good afternoon —
With its ability to record and share asset and ownership data, many feel blockchain technology is a natural step in the evolution of title insurance and document recording technology. But in an industry where some counties do not allow for e-recording and others still have not digitized records, a world where the ownership of every house is tracked via blockchain is a ways off. Despite this, James Rogers, the co-founder of Blockchain Home Registry, is optimistic about the future of technology in the title industry.
“We realized that any type of real estate data is extremely difficult to access and that really slows down innovation in this space,” Rogers said. “Real estate is so slow to adopt technology and the lack of data is a huge part of that because if you want to start almost anything innovative in real estate you need to jump through hoops to get the data you need.”
Using information available through public records, BHR allows users to access real-time information about any property.
While Rogers said one of his primary goals with BHR is to increase the pace of innovation in real estate, he also wants to empower homeowners by giving them control over their home’s data.
“One of the things we like to say is, ‘You own your home, but you don’t own its data,’” Rogers said. “A lot of the data that surrounds your home is controlled by all these different fragmented parties, so we want to educate homeowners about their homes.”
Rogers was inspired to help homeowners in this way after having an offer accepted on a house in California, only to be rejected by 10 insurance companies for wildfire risk, which is information he wishes he had before becoming emotionally invested in the property.
Despite Rogers’ optimism about the applications of blockchain in real estate, he knows there is a long way to go.
“I think maybe 30 years from now we will see everything on blockchain,” Rogers said. “But we recently signed a deal with one of the Big Four title companies because they want to aggregate our system and they are really bullish on building a long-term relationship with us and with blockchain.”
Until next week,
Brooklee Han
Real Estate and Title Industry Reporter
brooklee@hwmedia.com
