My girlfriends house in Germany

[bitcoin_bob]

OK....I'm starting to form an idea of what is being asked a bit better now. Thank you for trying to elaborate on the whole escrow thing, which is, all I have really asked multiple times.

See, you are the first person to have even mentioned that there is such a thing as escrow which holds BTC in currency. Now if that were the case, I do not see why not. Can you answer me some questions though-

(removed for brevity)

See, that's where things get hard to do. You are doing an auction in BTC, an irreversible, pseudo-anonymous crypto-currency that is not officially accepted anywhere state sponsored and are trying to get the whole protection and guarantees of government debt-money. The two are not interchangeable, you have either/or.

If you want to be sure you have a guaranteed exchange rate and that you don't have to do your own research on who is trustworthy and you don't want to take responsibility over your actions if you make the wrong decision, then you should only work with fiat.

The reason people here are so jumpy about scammers is because the buyer is the one holding most of the risk up to the very end. Sure, bitcoins can plummet, but are you willing to give back the difference if bitcoins rise in value while under escrow?

Yes, John might run away with your 25k EUR BTC equivalent, but I can bet you he has right now and at any point in time much, much more than that being held for others. That is why we trust him, and sure he can disappear, but so can you. He has a great track record, you we don't (yet) know.

As for all other questions about payment processors you'll have to do your own investigation (which goes full circle on this response). If I were to tell you "sure, don't worry, fully insured and such" would you just believe me? I'm not sure at all what the answer is, btw, I don't trust insured companies anyway, as we all know what happens when it is time for insurance to pay up...

But hang in there! We are certainly progressing and even if you end up not selling your house for BTC, this will help any upcoming seller.

Good response, well thought out.

So basically I am standing on the edge of uncharted territory here- we could loose everything if BTC collapses but if we win, we have the honour of probably being the first people to auction off a house in BTC, at least here. 

So history in the making or shy away from the challenge? Quite the choice to make, especially on the behalf of someone else (my girlfriend)

All the bones in my body want to say yes......

[1715635573]

1715635573

[1715635573]

1715635573

[h4r13q1n]

I still don't understand why a payment processor like pitpay shouldn't be a considerable option.

[bitcoin_bob]

I still don't understand why a payment processor like pitpay shouldn't be a considerable option.

what is pitpay? I googled and see nothing but pages of japanese text, aboutorg pages and spam.

[malevolent]

So basically I am standing on the edge of uncharted territory here- we could loose everything if BTC collapses but if we win, we have the honour of probably being the first people to auction off a house in BTC, at least here. 

You can always ask the person who is the Escrow to immediately convert the BTC to fiat (let's EUR) for the time of the transaction and back to BTC to the seller once the buyer confirms everything is OK.

[Knecke]

I don't live far away from the city, but far enough to live in west germany 
Is it possible to survey the house?

[wtfvanity]

I still don't understand why a payment processor like pitpay shouldn't be a considerable option.

what is pitpay? I googled and see nothing but pages of japanese text, aboutorg pages and spam.

I think he means bitpay. You sign up as a merchant, accept BTC, they transfer it to you in BTC or your choice of fiat.

36 BTC.

[server]

Are these pictures recently taken ?

[SilverBullet]

So basically I am standing on the edge of uncharted territory here- we could loose everything if BTC collapses but if we win, we have the honour of probably being the first people to auction off a house in BTC, at least here. 

You can always ask the person who is the Escrow to immediately convert the BTC to fiat (let's EUR) for the time of the transaction and back to BTC to the seller once the buyer confirms everything is OK.

If bitcoin_bob accepts this im in with 37 BTC

[bitcoin_bob]

OK....So the girlfriend is home and this is what we are thinking.

ESCROW WILL BE ACCEPTED, under the following conditions;

The TOTAL BALANCE to be converted into fiat- Euro by the escrow.

We will post 2 copies of the certificate that funds have been received to the escrow holder.

The escrow holder will send the certificate of funds received to the notary in Germany and a copy to the buyer and release the money simultaneously.

ALL COST OF ESCROW TO BE BOURNE BY THE BUYER if so chosen.

The buyer will still, in any case HAVE to deposit 500 euros with the German notary to cover costs.

If the full purchase price is declared, 3.5% tax will be added to the sale.

Inspections are fine, but I need to know who you are, and when you are going which protects us both- if the politzi are there and we get a call saying someone is snooping round we can confirm who you are and what you are doing. Also if an hour after your apparent visit there are a bunch of broken windows and things missing we know whose direction to point the politzi in.

PM's are welcome to request documents of proof, lawyers information, our phone number, address of the property, or any other questions you have that don't have to clog up my auction.

If the auction just degenerates again into a thread instead of an auction, we will just lock the thread and start it again. If same thing happens, we will just pull the whole idea.

So to re-iterate- I now take Escrow as set up above. Please read the auction to see if questions you have to ask have already been answered- PM me if you have any more questions and if they seem relevant I will post them on the auction, and PM me if you want phone numbers/addresses.

So back to business. wtfvanity seems to be the high bidder at 36BTC, Auction finishes Saturday 11th at midnight GMT.

lets get it on!

[bitcoin_bob]

Are these pictures recently taken ?

September 2012.

SilverBullet, I accept your bid.

[molecular]

any "denkmalschutz" problems with this property?

[wtfvanity]

38

[joesmoe2012]

40

[SilverBullet]

41 btc under same conditions

[Inedible]

What I still don't understand is why both parties can't trust the lawyers.

Sure, I get that either one of you could screw the other but the lawyers are there to ensure that nothing illegal happens.

Can't you trust the lawyers? (No facetious jokes about lawyers being untrustworthy please).


Buyer: Instruct your lawyer to only send the Bitcoins once transfer of deeds has happened.

Seller: Instruct your lawyer to receive X bitcoins for the transfer to happen.


What have I missed?

There's no need for the two parties to trust each other. They just need to trust their lawyers.


(Also, could a paper wallet help in this scenario?)

[candoo]

politzi its named Polizei!

[bitcoin_bob]

politzi its named Polizei!

I know I know. Its my own personal portmaneau of Polizei and Stazi. Having personally had a helicopter and 4 police cars at a friends house in the east simply for being with a Rastafarian and they thought he must be a drug dealer......I don't tar all Germans with said brush but I know very well what the men in Green (or well blue now) are capable of.

As to man with the Denkmalschutz comment.....please read the posts, there is NOT Denk on this property. Fifth time I believe. Thanks.

[Welsh]

So much interest!

Sadly the price is way to much for me , it has very good potential.


I hope whoever buys it is passionate and makes this into a beautiful home!

[molecular]

So much interest!

Sadly the price is way to much for me , it has very good potential.


I hope whoever buys it is passionate and makes this into a beautiful home!

I think the objects price is the least of your worries. My parents had renovated a similar object in better condition. Renovation cost was roughly twice the purchase price.

Also please keep in mind there are rules in germany for certain old buildings ("Denkmalschutz"). You might be obligated to preserve the building "in its current substance". You probably can't just demolish it and build a new house on top (which might be cheaper than renovating). I'm no expert on this, but many old buildings like that in germany go for a very low price because of this. An uncle of mine, roughly 30 years ago, bought a now beautiful house in germany for 1 german Mark. He's been renovating it for decades.

I'm not trying to talk this down, I'm sure it can be made a beautiful home / vacation place, but maybe OP should clarify on the status regarding "monument protection" to avoid costly surprises for the buyer.

On the other hand I've been thinking about starting a "bitcoin village". This might be a candidate . I'd be interested in the age structure of the population there.

[molecular]

So much interest!

Sadly the price is way to much for me , it has very good potential.


I hope whoever buys it is passionate and makes this into a beautiful home!

I think the objects price is the least of your worries. My parents had renovated a similar object in better condition. Renovation cost was roughly twice the purchase price.

Also please keep in mind there are rules in germany for certain old buildings ("Denkmalschutz"). You might be obligated to preserve the building "in its current substance". You probably can't just demolish it and build a new house on top (which might be cheaper than renovating). I'm no expert on this, but many old buildings like that in germany go for a very low price because of this. An uncle of mine, roughly 30 years ago, bought a now beautiful house in germany for 1 german Mark. He's been renovating it for decades.

I'm not trying to talk this down, I'm sure it can be made a beautiful home / vacation place, but maybe OP should clarify on the status regarding "monument protection" to avoid costly surprises for the buyer.

On the other hand I've been thinking about starting a "bitcoin village". This might be a candidate . I'd be interested in the age structure of the population there.

as an example see the 3rd offer from the top on this page: http://pfeiffer-koberstein-immobilien.de/portal.php?id=15&vSuchText=Denkmalschutz

The building is from the 2nd half of the 19th century and is under "monument protection". It's absolutely gorgeous, yet it goes for a mere 55,000€ because of the obligations attached.