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Canadian Man Wants To Trade Home For Bitcoins

An anonymous reader writes with this snippet from CBC News: " It's not often that Canadian real estate listings make international headlines, but a mid-sized Alberta bungalow has people around the world buzzing today after its owner declared that he would like to sell it — for Bitcoins. If successful, 22-year-old entrepreneur Taylor More would be the first person ever to accept the fast-rising virtual currency in exchange for property. 'My home is being traded for Bitcoins!' reads the listing for More's 'quaint' two bedroom home in Crowsnest Pass, Alberta. ... The property is listed for $405,000 CDN, but More writes that 'the price can be reduced" if a buyer has some Bitcoins to spare.'"

10 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. He does not want to sell it for Bitcoins... by Zemran · · Score: 2

    ...he will accept some Bitcoins in part payment. Different!

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    1. Re:He does not want to sell it for Bitcoins... by kju · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm not sure if you are correct, though. From the FA:

      "Bitcoins are really hard to get your hands on if you want to get them in large quantities," he told the BBC when asked why he decided to accept the currency for his home. "I have a couple projects that I want to get started, and they will take a lot of Bitcoins."

      So it sure sound like he will accept at least quite a large part in Bitcoins. The article states that the priced asked for currently equal about 5300 Bitcoin.

    2. Re:He does not want to sell it for Bitcoins... by jjohnson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He does not want to sell it for Bitcoins, he wants a viral story to advertise his house for sale.

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  2. Re:But will his Mortgage holder take bitcoin? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's entirely possible that he doesn't have a mortgage payment, you know. Not everyone is in debt up to their eyeballs and some people have actually paid off their houses.

  3. Re:But will his Mortgage holder take bitcoin? by slackware+3.6 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    22 year olds don't pay off their mortgages. His dad was an NHL player and the house came from his mothers family. He didn't work for it. There are lots of young punks in Alberta that inherited houses and land when the grandparents died and no one wants to move back to the farm or small town so they sell it. And since the housing boom in 2005 land prices went up rediculiously in small towns thanks to immigration and temporary foreign residents. Most people in Alberta are up to their eyeballs in debt it is expensive to live and wages have dropped steadily or the last 5 years because so many foreign resident live here. They cram 10 - 15 people in a house and under cut the local contractors and work for less wages than locals so they can squirrel away a few dollars to send home, the place with the high exchange rate they came from. A job that paid $35/hr 5 years ago pays $20-$25 now. Where I live milk is $7 a gallon, bannanas are almost $1/lb, a single cucumber is $2. I live in a town with 420 houses. 50 are currently for sale. Half the local bussnesses have shut down. Everyone wants to move but you can't sell your house.

  4. Don't sell! by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 3, Funny

    Canadian Man Wants To Trade Home For Bitcoins

    Dude, you can get weed legally in several US states now! Pack up your poutine machine and come on down!

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  5. Re:Well... by slackware+3.6 · · Score: 2

    1 Canadian Dollar equals 0.98 US Dollar

  6. Re:Is the fella normal? by isopropanol · · Score: 2

    The asking price is redonculously high for Crowsnest Pass. Fyi it is nowhere near the oilpatch - in size of Texas units for americans, It's about the same as driving from Corpus Christi to Kansas City. Much of it on secondary routes.

    My first thought was tax evasion, but currency manipulation seems more likely now that I've looked up the MLS listings in Crowsnest Pass.

    Also that area is known for having a lot of tax refuser/corporation sole/"free person"/gold standard etc nutjobs because for a while it was officially claimed by neither AB nor BC due to one province's boundary legislation being based on a river (which moved) and the other being based on survey points of the river before it moved.

  7. Does getting paid in Bitcoin make a difference? by xiando · · Score: 2

    Lets say you want to buy a wireless router or a house. You look at the price in Bitcoins based on todays BTC/USD value and buy enough bitcoins in the market and pay for the item. It really doesn't make a difference what the value of the BTC currency is or if the price is BTC or USD, the only differences is that 1) paying in BTC requires an extra step to get and 2) it's much simpler to actually pay/move the money when you have the BTC. I have no problem selling anything in BTC, including my apartment, since BTC is as good as / better than any fiat paper currency.

  8. Re:Is the fella normal? by ultranova · · Score: 2

    This fella needs some form of psychiatric evaluation. Question is, am I alone?

    No, the usual astroturfers began posting their FUD right away. Which rises the question: are they employed by governments or banks? In other words, which fears Bitcoin more: governments, for not being able to inflate the currency, or the banks, for no longer being able to nickel-and-dime people? Or am I ignoring the most obvious culprit: VISA, for no longer being able to tax all online transactions?

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