Kristen Quinn and her husband, Sunset Sale entrepreneurs, have plans to disrupt the real estate industry

Kristen Quinn may be best known as a cast member of the popular Netflix show sunset sale But the Los Angeles real estate expert’s newest role goes beyond traditional real estate. Quinn and her husband, Christian Dumontet, a software engineer, tech entrepreneur and investor, sold his company Foodler to Grubhub in 2017 for $65 million (he booted it without investors), launching their first company with plans to disrupt the real estate market as we know it.

Launched today, RealOpen bridges the gap between digital assets and physical goods. Using secure and proprietary software, RealOpen allows anyone anywhere to buy or sell a home via crypto, at a time when many brokers and agents may be shy about the process. It is the first company of its kind.

“We saw a huge opportunity in the market for holders of digital assets in cryptocurrency,” says Dumontet, an early investor in cryptocurrency. Forbes. “ The cryptocurrency market cap currently exceeds $2 trillion. Our initial target demographic for RealOpen is crypto whales, which are generally defined as someone with digital assets of $5 million or more, held without selling in the hope of future profits.”

RealOpen works with the entire MLS inventory, as well as off-market homes, uniting buyers, sellers and agents. How it works After finding your home (whether on your own or through the RealOpen platform), RealOpen will check your crypto assets to prove that you have access to the funds. Traditionally, buyers seeking to purchase cryptocurrency would have to liquidate their cryptocurrency to obtain a proof of funds letter from the bank.

People may wonder why they don’t sell their cryptocurrency for cash first and then buy the house with cash. First, in doing so, they will lose participation in the cryptocurrency market,” Dumontet explains. “If you are considering a home purchase, it can take months to decide what is right for you. In this case, if someone sells their cryptocurrency for cash first, they will have to do so, and then get proof of money letter verification from the bank, and this leads to a taxable event at that moment. With RealOpen, they can hold their cryptocurrency throughout this entire process, which means continued market participation. We offer continuous verification of funds throughout the process so that the seller knows, as the buyer shows, that he already owns the funds and cannot play games with the transfer of funds in and out. This taxable event only occurs at the moment of closing.”

Once the full crypto offer is submitted, the buyers work with the RealOpen agent to finalize the contingencies, terms and timing before the agent presents the seller with a full cash offer. If an offer is accepted, RealOpen helps buyers convert 3% of their crypto holdings into cash to go into an escrow account. Right before closing, the remaining 97% of the crypto offer is converted into cash.

The most interesting aspect is that sellers do not need a digital wallet to receive funds; Instead, the seller receives cash at closing. They work with highly regulated institutional partners and navigate KYC/AML requirements. Domonte has also recruited an impressive team, including CEOs of high-growth companies, real estate brokers, litigation attorneys, and securities attorneys. Part of their services are Legal and Compliance, to make all parties, especially those new to crypto, feel comfortable. Dumont is the CEO, and Quinn’s nickname is CMO. She has 2.7 million followers on Instagram (and the number is growing) and launched the successful ShoeDazzle campaign.

“It really brings out crypto skeptics who don’t have digital wallets or have no interest in acquiring them,” Quinn says. “We flip it over to them across the platform and they’ll get paid.”

To demonstrate how much they trust their platform, Coin is listing their own house in West Hollywood (shown here) via RealOpen for $9.25 million, or crypto-equivalent. RealOpen is launching with a selection of premium homes in Los Angeles, Miami and New York, including a Greenwich Village loft and luxury Fisher Island estate, and will eventually have more exclusive inventory across the platform. The company is open to accepting all popular cryptocurrencies, which include but are not limited to Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Dumontet has also created patent-pending software insurance, which RealOpen uses. He says volatility is one of the first questions buyers and sellers ask when it comes to crypto deals.

“Price fluctuations can be dramatic, and a great way to de-risk digital assets is to move some of that into real estate. Now, they have their digital assets in a more stable asset class,” says Domonte. “The question might be, what happens when cryptocurrency X is worth a dollar amount one day and a different amount the next? Part of what we did is we built a volatility model. It’s an algorithm that takes into account the digital assets that a person owns, which could be a basket Variety. It could be Bitcoin, Ethereum or other cryptocurrencies as well. Using this algorithm, they can predict price movements over the next period they are considering. This gives guarantees that their offer will be stronger than cash because it has been verified all the time.”

Dumontet helped create the proprietary software RealOpen uses. Combined with his wife’s real estate prowess, the company truly feels like a smooth and sensual partnership. Innovation in crypto, and even in relation to real estate, is constantly evolving, but the real estate world has never seen anything quite like this, especially as many brokerages struggle to keep up with the times.

Quinn, who has built an incredible real estate client list of high net worth individuals and celebrities, says this is part of her decision to leave the Oppenheim Group (the brokerage was highlighted in sunset sale) because the company was not future-oriented and was not a believer in cryptocurrencies.

“A lot of brokerages are very cautious about accepting cryptocurrencies because they don’t understand the inner workings of it, which is why it is very difficult for agents to conduct these transactions,” she says. Forbes. “A) Brokers know nothing about encryption; b) I don’t know how to do it; and c) You don’t understand how reliable it is and how secure it actually is. The process RealOpen uses is completely reliable and fraud-free.”

It doesn’t end in real estate, Quinn hinted, although it seemed like a natural start for the company given her background. Buying and selling yachts, artwork, cars or jewelry via cryptocurrency could be in the future of RealOpen.

sunset sale Season 5 is out on Netflix now.