Real Estate and Blockchain | Teresa Grobecker

She is the CEO of Consortia, part of the National Association of Realtor's portfolio of companies through SCV REACH.
Teresa leads several companies in the real estate industry, founded the first online real estate brokerage in San Francisco, and manages three NAR portfolio companies and one prop-tech company outside the NAR family.
She also consults the largest owners of SFRs, title and escrow, underwriting and real estate companies on Web 3.0, aka, blockchain.

Show Notes

The future of real estate will be in the blockchain... 

What does that mean and how will it impact you? 

This episode will give you what you need to know as we talk with Teresa Grobecker.

Teresa put American real estate, (the world’s largest asset class) on her private, patent-pending blockchain.

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Justin Stoddart

What is Think Bigger Real Estate?

The road to success for real estate agents is well-marked. The road to significance is not. Here, we help you to Think Bigger than just your business. We inspire you to seek success AND significance, income AND impact. We do that by interviewing the biggest thinkers and highest achievers in the real estate industry, extracting the secrets to having it all.

Justin Stoddart 0:01
So the big question is this. How do we those of us in the real estate industry with crazy amounts of ambition? How do we think bigger than the building of our own empires? How do we simultaneously see success and significance, income and impact? My name is Justin Stoddart, and this is the Think bigger real estate Show.

Justin Stoddart 0:26
Welcome back to the Think bigger real estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart, today, everything you need to know about real estate and blockchain and the reality that the future of your business resides in the blockchain. Stay with us we got a really exciting episode for you today.

Justin Stoddart 0:52
Again, so excited to be with you I have today the world's foremost expert when it comes to blockchain and real estate, she started the very first online brokerage in in the real estate industry, she now leads multiple, very impressive companies. She on her own patent pending blockchain put the largest asset class in the world onto it, which is American real estate. Ladies and gentlemen, I am thrilled today to bring to you, Theresa Gregor. Three. So thank you so much for taking some time. I know your interview after interview after interview right now, because this topic is so hot. So pending, are so interesting for so many people. So appreciate you taking a few minutes to be with us today.

Teresa Grobecker 1:33
Oh my gosh, I'm just honored to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Dustin, thanks for everyone watching.

Justin Stoddart 1:38
Yes, tell me what parts of your bio did I miss and or mess up that would help the audience have a better understanding of kind of your background in in this space? And why really, you have such authority to be talking about this.

Teresa Grobecker 1:52
Um, that's a glowing introduction. I appreciate you for doing that. I think what's important is to say that I am a practitioner. I'm a managing broker, I serve as clients, I buy sell houses for my clients, and I'm a loan originator. So I come at this from a very practical, not like a esoteric, theoretical, like in a ivory tower kind of approach of blockchain. It's more like how do we get more deals done. So it's really important for us to focus, I'm committed to the practitioner in that regard. And then I'm also committed to putting Americans into homes or the American dream, let's call it because people come from all over the world to this country to own real estate. And we are merely stewards of this. And I'm really committed to you that being that I was born overseas, myself. So I think that just if we're going to do business together, you should know who I am. And what drives me.

Justin Stoddart 2:48
I love it. Now, again, you run Consortium, which is you're the CEO of that, right, which is an NAR. owned, is that right? Kind of portfolio company, and they're using your patent pending blockchain to put really real estate on there. Is that accurate data that I state that right?

Teresa Grobecker 3:08
I think it's been said worse ways, right? I I have to be careful. And we have very specific instructions, so of how to position what we do. So I did put American real estate on my own blockchain. And then I was thrown in front of Bob Goldberg, who's the CEO of NAR, and he was like, You're ours. And I was like, I made it for you. It was actually an offensive move against China and Russia before they did it to us because they're ahead of us in certain technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence. So this was back in 2018. Which is kind of scary to think because now you read the news. And you're like, oh, China and Russia. And that's interesting. So we went through the NAR second century ventures second century Ventures is the venture capital arm of NAR, it's the for profit arm is really started with DocuSign, that early investment in Docusign. And it's really future proof the industry. So we went through their accelerator in 2019. Then I refused even touch the project for two years. And then it was when all of the hedge general counsel's from like really big corporations that are in the real estate space when they came to me and they're like, Hey, Teresa, did you know blockchain can do such and such? And I'm like, Yep, that was in my white paper in 2018. If you guys are ready to do this, then I'll dust off the project and do it. So we really lead the conversation. Advise NAR the SEC policymakers, because everything that we do follows SEC guidelines, good funds, RESPA. Right as practitioners, and then all kinds of laws, everything in between for all 50 states. So we've really built this institutional grade product for everyone in the real estate ecosystem.

Justin Stoddart 5:00
You know, I'd love to hear if you if we were to fast forward 10 years from now, how is real estate different in your opinion based on what will happen in in blockchain in the next 10 years? Is that? Is that a fair question?

Teresa Grobecker 5:12
It is fair I can't even go out 10 years, though is is what's really crazy. And when I took that two year break on consortia when I when I dusted it off, everything that's happened in the past, let's see, we're in July right now, everything that's happened since like November of last year, is what I envisioned would have taken three more years to happen, which is crazy. So 10 years from now, like I can only, I can only think about the next 12 to 18 months. So and here's what I'm going to say is it's moving so quickly now. So we know that the SEC crackdown on stable coins, we've all seen this, like there's a bloodbath and every security, right? Markets are pooping the bed right now, but that also impacts the SEC that said they were going to crack down on stable coins. And we've seen an epic meltdown. I hate crypto. I hate crypt. Okay, so let's just get that out of the way consortium does not have a crypto. But what we've seen is the SEC said that they're going to crack down and say what is a true stable coin. And the reason is, is that crypto is merely a testing ground for what's coming next. And that's fed coin. So the second that the government launches fed coin overnight, doesn't matter if you like blockchain or hate it, if you like crypto or you don't, all of our transactions are going to happen on blockchain. And I'm predicting that fed coin gets rolled out in the next 12 to 24 months. It used to be a big conspiracy theory like back in the day in my first blockchain company, like I would get down the rabbit hole. It was was like really fringe blockchain was really fringe back then. And I read these things about fed coin coming. And the first mentions of it right in The Economist, which is run by the Rothschild family. Now, it's like it's in the news, it's all been disclosed that the federal government is working on this. So that's my prediction is that and I know this because Chase Bank came to us their treasury department came to me in 2018, I thought I was just doing an application to apply for a bank account with them. Because we were this company, you gotta have a bank account. And they were like, it was the head of the Treasury Department who came to me and said, How do we fund all of our mortgages on blockchain? And I'm just a happy go lucky person. I'm like, do to do like, cool. I'm talking to the head of the Treasury, no big deal. I'm sure everybody loves this right as they get a bank account. So as soon as this stuff gets announced, all of our transactions happen. And what we're seeing right now, the biggest, the biggest players who are coming to us are the financial institutions. So like Fannie and Freddie, you've got like, the biggest banks, and they're sniffing around and they're trying to figure out, okay, how do we jump on now. And once you get them, I always say follow the money. Once you know, the money is on something, and they're doing a protocol and a procedure. We all have to follow as real estate practitioners. So 10 years from now, okay, in 10 years from now, to answer your question. And I joke with my kids about this all the time, they're gonna look back and be like, Mom, do you remember a decade ago? How cool you thought, like you were on Justin's show and getting interviewed on blockchain? Like, that is so passe. And it's like, everywhere? Why would you think this was something cutting edge back then? That's, that's, I think, in hindsight, well, I think

Justin Stoddart 8:27
I like to tell my kids that I'm older than the internet, and they're like, mind blowing. That is ancient. Now my grandkids will be like, I'm older than blockchain. And they'll be like, I can't fathom. I can't fathom grandpa. Let's talk a little bit about. Okay, so the next probably a few months fed coin is here in that period of time. All real estate transactions are funded in blockchain.

Teresa Grobecker 8:52
Yeah, fair through blockchain rails.

Justin Stoddart 8:53
That's right. Interesting. So what do agents then need to do? To prepare for that? I know you have some resources that we're going to offer up in the comments for people to be able to get access to get some training for what that looks like, so that we don't slow them down, right. But if you're obviously an active agent, now, if you were advising, which I'm sure you do, agents, what they could and should be doing now not to get distracted and kind of the long term picture, which for some, there's probably opportunity there for the right people, right. But for the average agent that's here wanting to thrive in a in a shifting market, and really be able to understand and talk intelligently and understand what's coming in the next 1218 months, which isn't very long at all, by the way, right? What would you advise

Teresa Grobecker 9:36
them? So I would say that there are some things that you can do right now to understand blockchain and to add it into your book of business. There are protocols that are live now and I'm going to let's see how smart I really am. If I can share my screen here. Can you see my screen there, Justin? Yep, now we all can go forward. Okay, awesome. So here's what I'm going to say is, this is the world right now that we're building out. So once you can, once you become a certified agent, or you can just jump in now, if you don't feel like going through the course, and you feel like you know enough about blockchain, go for it. So we have some things here. These are all on blockchain. Now. So this is a floor plan, right that we can do this became policy in February, that you can do the floor plan. And this is part of the appraisal package that's done pre listing, or maybe you go into your contract and you want to shorten that timeframe. You can do all of this and send this to the appraiser, you as the agent can do this. And this is critical, because for so long, agents have been at the mercy of their lender who tells them what to do, guess what? You want to close the deal in 21 days, these are the tools that used to do it. Your days on the market on the MLS, you shorten those? You go out there and you go to your three top lenders and say, Are you ready to accept this floorplan? And then right down here, if you go drop straight down? Are you ready to accept my buyers information, their financial data, their ability to pay score on blockchain? Right now. And this is where you guide the conversation and you go, Oh, so you're not ready to do this. Cool. I'm gonna go to the lender that is ready, because there are lenders, these are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac policies that say that these processes are ready to go, consortia does some of these already on blockchain. The other one here is Boston national title. So this is a title company that we work with. It's puts all of your title records, the entire underwriting of the property on blockchain ahead of your listing, so that you can go like this and close escrow. The next thing we have here is the AVM data about the house. We're marrying this up with secondary markets. So the largest underwriters of secondary markets, let me explain what that means. Here's the house, here's loan origination and your secondary markets. The thing that creates that liquidity right here, secondary markets, so that's when all those mortgages are bundled up and then sold, right? Like trillions of dollars huge packages are sold. That creates liquidity for us to do more deals now. So we have those connections. We have this API that information about your borrower information, your buyer information your clients, so that we can lead share that back to you. And this is all exchange over blockchain. You're probably wondering, how do I sign up for something like this? And we actually just announced this one hour ago is the we are making the metaverse and that people can come and pre purchase all of their property NF T's that go on to the metaverse. So for example, we're saying that there's a verify customer relationship where you have a verified past sale. This is where you get the alerts, is there a potential nod that's happening on this house. And this is really critical, because we're going into this environment where we haven't had any foreclosures for the past two years. Now we're already at half the rate that we normally are, that's about to double to go to the normal rate. And then my prediction is it doubles again, because of what's happening in the economy. So we're coming in for a hard landing, we know some things are gonna happen. So we want to be in front of this. So what if you know that your past sale your past client is going through distress? What if you reach out to them and you're the hero, you capture the sale, you're able to help them, maybe you're able to keep them in their house, because we have a relationship with family office money that wants to come in and help them and take their house payments over for them. And the last thing here are the certified listing so that you can sell more houses faster. So this is stuff that's on blockchain. Today, this map is launching in 30 days, all of these processes are already happening. So yeah, it's, it's what about fed coin in the next, you know, two years? But it's also how can I sell more houses here, and this is our, this is our commitment to the industry. And I

Justin Stoddart 14:01
think that's what agents care about right now. Right? It's super interesting to be looking out into the deep blue yonder, and saying, like, oh, well, that's what the world's gonna look like when we get there. But it's more like I want to get there comfortably. Right. I want to get there and build a great business now. And take advantage of insider, I say insider information. I mean that in all the ethical ways, right, but to get get inside information about what's happening in the world so that you can access data that other people don't have access to right, and work with it in a way that's intelligent that allows you to get access opportunities that others aren't aware of yet. Would you say that this that tool that you just described there? What would you call that? What you just showed us there?

Teresa Grobecker 14:37
That yeah, we were we were just on a podcast where we announced it, it's the globe, the digital, the global digital twin metaverse. Okay, perfect. It's a mouthful. I think we're going to do a competition to like name is something

Justin Stoddart 14:52
given an acronym that something matters. Okay. So how would agents access that? Is that a subscription model that they get access? so that they just enter in with their license and pay because I'm a national, because I'm a real estate agent, I get access to it, what does it look like to get access to that kind of data and be able to function within that Metaverse,

Teresa Grobecker 15:10
you're not gonna believe this. This is like kind of crazy beans, I think I think it's the most valuable NFT you're ever gonna purchase. So we're doing bulk pre sales for this $1 A property. And it's a one time purchase in that crate. I mean, like when you think about it, like, clearly, I'm not a good business person, because I would make this a SaaS subscription. But that's, I don't know that NF T's quite work like that. Anyway. So it's $1 per property, it's bulk. If you wanted one, it's 20 bucks. If you want to give us here's the process, you hand us your entire list of past sales, we asked for a little bit of data, a contracting that says that you actually have a relationship with this property, it's good data and good data out, right. It's not a matter of just going out like maybe like Zillow did back in the day, where you just go and buy a zip code or what you do today with Zillow, we're not that we want to make sure that you actually know that homeowner, right. It's it's a real relationship. So this can be purchased. There's a link, we're making this group active. It's in the consortia family. It's a new group that we're launching, that's called Metaverse, and then the link to go and purchase all these NF T's are in there. And then once you're part of the community, you get all this additional training, for example, the BPOS, which we know we're going to hit, we want to make sure agents get business, we want to make sure that you have every kind of employment opportunity, we're gonna be doing training on that in conjunction with Fannie and our business partners. And then all the other training that we offer once during the community, you get all these alerts. So that's how to, that's how to get the information. So you

Justin Stoddart 16:45
get access by purchasing access that property. And then what then what does an agent do with that they get access to, to what mean? How does that let's say that I go back and I purchase all of the records of the homes that I've sold in the past, walk me through next steps,

Teresa Grobecker 17:00
it's going to be a communication that we integrate with the banks and those API's with the company AI curio that you just saw up on the slide deck, and then also canopy. So these are the guys that do the bulk of the underwriting for servicing, and for secondary markets. So when alerts come live, when there are issues, we're going to be able to make that match and get that information back to the agent.

Justin Stoddart 17:23
So the agent, let's say get notified that they're so so the information that will come through on that is if there's a change in title, right, if they've refinance, if they've sold if they've there's a lien on

Teresa Grobecker 17:35
interest, if they're in distress, that's what's really critical. That's that's the biggest concern that we're hearing from the lenders right now, is that they want to make sure that the that the home, right doesn't go through like copper wires being pulled out, or holes in the walls, like these are real things that like as consumers move out of their houses or lose or about to lose their houses, that the properties get destroyed. So we want to make sure that we take care of the consumer, we figure out a solution for them, we also take care of the asset for the lenders, that is the biggest concern that I'm hearing everywhere in capital markets right now.

Justin Stoddart 18:12
Interesting, be sure that the asset remains valuable. Very, very fascinating. What additional opportunities do you foresee beyond meta which is amazing, right to have that kind of pure data coming? That's validated? Is there other things that agents could be doing right now to be prepared for the changes that will even come? As a result of that?

Teresa Grobecker 18:37
Yeah, so I would say it's a matter of training, right? And getting comfortable with all these terms. It's huge. That's what we see ourselves as stewards of information. For me personally, if I could put blockchain in a dumpster and light it on fire. And I'd be out in a second, right? I see this as a fiduciary duty to make sure that agents understand what's coming and really for the benefit of consumers. So come through the training, I think is step one. Step two, is we're going to be filming in a week from today, all of the training for consumers so that once you go through as an agent, you're like, cool, like big gulf. I understood that part. And that we have a place for you to send your clients to, so that they can also be like, Oh, I get it now too. But that the agent doesn't have to like trip over their words and like try to explain something that's like so foreign to them. So for consumers, we can say, how do you buy and sell any house with crypto or what does blockchain mean? What is a certified listing? How do I use this to sell my house? How do I buy a house? How am I in control of this process? How is my offer going to be as competitive as an all cash offer as I go out there to bid on a house? We want to make this really clear to the consumer so I think it's a matter one agent, get educated to let's bring the customers along with this.

Justin Stoddart 19:58
I think that goes right along with with what I teach and believe is that we live in the information age where where information is in everybody's fingertips. But it takes a leader, somebody who can take that information and turn it knowledge, turn it into something that people can do something with. Right? What's your a prime example of that. And today, taking this concept that's many is very abstract this concept of blockchain and real estate, really helping us see very tactically, what they can do with it, what steps they can take now. And I think as real estate agents recognize that this isn't some option in the future, that this is, this is going to be how real estate is transactional, this is going to be how it's done, that there's going to need to be a time of adoption. And the earlier that you can get access to that information, learn it yourself, and lead out in the marketplace and lead consumers helping them to understand here's what, here's what you need to know, you don't need to worry about these other things, here are the things you need to know. Like you position yourself very differently than other real estate agents that get the reputation at times sometimes deserved, oftentimes not up simply putting a sign in the yard and collecting a commission check, right? You really position yourself as being a leader, somebody who knows not only what's here, but what's coming and how to help consumers navigate that, that that betters their situation better than anybody else out there. And I think now's a really great opportunity. Because again, we know that this is what's coming. And it behooves agents to really seize this opportunity to capture it and position themselves as a leader in the industry, when maybe they haven't at times, right now's the time to really kind of jump ahead of others who aren't taking it seriously to become that thought leader becoming that leader in the marketplace. So great stuff, Teresa, I'd love to ask you kind of one final question. As we wrap up here. What first let's let's get clear on where agents can go to get education? Actually, while you're doing it. I'm going to put it inside of the comments. I do actually have a question over here, friend of mine breezy, where she said, is there an option to sell the NF T's eventually? Or do you own them forever? Because there's Yes. Like a secondary marketplace? Great question.

Teresa Grobecker 22:03
Such a great question. Yeah. So the owner of the NFT has the option to sell if they have copyright rights to their data. So if it's a certified listing that gets gifted to the new owner of the property from the agent, and then that owner of the property, the owner of the NFT can then choose to sell that information on the general marketplace, right? It's a marketplace to share information. So anybody who has information can then go and monetize and sell it.

Justin Stoddart 22:34
Exactly. Okay, great, great question.

Teresa Grobecker 22:36
I do want to add to that, too, what we're baking into this system is as a practitioner, right? If you want to retire, you're going to be able to sell all those relationships that you have all those NF T's that you're tied to. So think about succession planning. Like we we as practitioners have never had the luxury of doing this, right. Like the second we stopped doing business, we like we stopped making money. So there's like a referral part of this that we're building as well. So some kind of cool things for agents as well in business planning.

Justin Stoddart 23:08
Now, the consumer would obviously have a choice as to which which agent they choose, just because you only have a fee doesn't mean that you own that deal. But it does give you insider information on on the inner workings of what's happening concerning title on that deal, right. So you have an insight information, be able to help people in a different better way. Is that a safe way to put that?

Teresa Grobecker 23:27
Absolutely. It's always consumer driven. Think about it this way, if I retire from the business, but there's information about a house that I sold, and Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or chase or Citibank needs to get in touch with that buyer? Wouldn't it be nice to give them to somebody who cares? You bought my book of business? Who can then be the steward. So maybe, maybe that new homeowner hates me, that's fine. They don't have to rehire me as their listing agent fine. But at least to have that conversation and be the conduit between capital markets is what we want to see.

Justin Stoddart 24:01
really speaks to the book that I authored the upstream model of how do you get up ahead of transactions? How do you get to the person that knows that a real estate transaction is coming? How do you how do you get that information early so that you can build a relationship with the client earlier? Like this whole concept of owning those LFTs gives you the ability to do that right to have insider information to get access to that client either build or reestablish or continue to nurture the relationship with the client up until the point that they're ready to transact? Absolutely. Yep. Super, super interesting stuff. I love it. I love it. Final question, Theresa, which is this you're obviously a big thinker, like one of the biggest thinkers we've ever had. Yes. helped me to understand what you do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your your possibilities. What does that look like for you teach us personally? continue to grow?

Teresa Grobecker 24:56
Hmm, I think it's a curse actually. Really, I let me just say this and I'm late to a call with Fannie Mae, some people are gonna murder me in just a second. I'll say this, the perfect day for me is going to a museum, a modern museum in San Francisco, followed up immediately by going to San Francisco Main Library, which is a huge library. It's like multiple stories, and just to be around information, and I think that my ADHD and my dyslexia are like my superpowers, because I can put together many different thoughts. And then I'm able to see the end at the beginning. And it just, it's really a curse, right? Like, I always joke and I say, I'm, I'm right, more than I'm wrong. And I hate that when I'm really right. And I know we have to prepare for things that are coming, because I know it means more work to people. So that's, that's just kind of how my brain operates. So

Justin Stoddart 25:54
if it's a gift, we'll let you go tell Fannie Mae Hello cinema regards. Appreciate it very much. Have a wonderful day. And it's every day. Go think bigger. Thanks, Teresa for helping us do that today, my friend.

Teresa Grobecker 26:06
Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Justin Stoddart 26:10
If you enjoyed this episode, that I have a very special invitation for you. I have created a private Facebook community called successful real estate agents, where the focus is going beyond success having both a successful business and a significant life. If you're not yet a member. Go sign up now.