Buy a House in the Metaverse
Most of us have heard someone say: ‘Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.’ But buying real estate within the metaverse puts a whole new twist on this old expression. Recently, Republic Realm made headlines when they spent $4.3 million on land within the Metaverse, and they are not the only ones buying. People are clambering to get their hands on virtual land. Today we are looking at how to get your hands on prime metaverse real estate and the process of becoming an owner of a property in the metaverse. There are lots of digital real estate options, but most of the land is owned by ‘The Big Four.’ Sandbox, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium.
Getting started
We will look at the most popular option for obtaining virtual real estate, Sandbox. Before starting, you will need a non-custodial wallet; the most popular option is MetaMask which can be downloaded as a chrome extension. MetaMask is a digital wallet that allows you to interact with the DeFi (decentralized finance) ecosystem. Because we are buying on Sandbox, we need to fund our wallet with SAND which is an Ethereum-based digital asset. SAND is the native currency of Sandbox and is used to purchase land on the platform. Once you have enough SAND in your wallet, it is time to find your dream virtual home!
Sandbox
It is not just ordinary investors buying virtual land, Gucci, Warner Music Group, and Snoop Dogg have already invested in virtual real estate. Snoop Dogg has rebuilt his real-life mansion within Sandbox, and if you’ve got the funds, perhaps Snoop could be your new neighbor. But you will more likely be buying land in the more deprived areas waiting for them to become trendy. Following the recent market corrections, land in the metaverse is actually cheaper than it's ever been! You can buy your own piece of virtual land for roughly $1,500.
Location
Location, location, location. This will be the most significant factor in whether your virtual real estate holdings become valuable or not. On Sandbox, investors profit by buying land and then flipping it when its value increases. So your location will heavily determine your profit.
Buying Your First Piece of Virtual Real Estate
First you’ll need to fund your wallet with SAND, which can be done here. Once your wallet has SAND, follow the steps outlined below to start your journey to becoming a digital real estate mogul.
1. Go to The Sandbox
2. Navigate your way to the Market
3. On the drop-down menu, find NFT Type and then select Lands
As you can see, parcels of prime virtual real estate and currently selling for just over 1 ETH when you filter by the lowest price. You can choose the filter that suits you best: Oldest, Newest, Lowest Price, Highest Price. For this tutorial, I will be using the Lowest price filter. But it doesn’t hurt to look at the most expensive plots of land.
4. Find a piece of land you want and select buy
5. Buy through OpenSea
This will bring you to OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, and you will see your property listing. Now you need to connect your MetaMask with Opeansea by clicking on the wallet icon.
6. Make an offer
Now it’s time to make your offer. You will need to outbid the current highest bid to attract the interest of the seller
7. When you have an offer, select ‘Make Offer’
8. Choose your offer's expiry date
Of course, you will be paying in SAND, and you need to have enough in your wallet for your offer to be valid
10. Sign transaction in MetaMask
A transaction will appear in your MetaMask wallet, and you will have to sign it (this is final, and after this, your offer can and may be accepted)