We Compared the Top Home Equity Vendors and Found a Clear Winner
Here’s a scenario that’s become pretty common: you own a home, and whether your mortgage rate is fantastic or not so fantastic, your house is now worth a lot more than when you bought it. Maybe you’re staring down a kitchen remodel, a roof that needs replacing, or just a pile of higher-interest debt you’d like gone. On paper, you’re sitting on a pile of money. In real life, that money is locked inside your walls, and the only ways to get it out have historically been a home equity loan or a HELOC; both of which mean a new monthly payment and interest piling up, on top of whatever you’re already paying.
Over the last few years, a different option has shown up: the home equity investment, sometimes called a home equity agreement.
The Basic Idea
Instead of lending you money, a company essentially buys a small slice of your home’s future value. They hand you cash today. In exchange, when you sell, refinance, or the term ends, they get their money back plus a cut of however much your home went up in value.
You get a lump sum now. You owe nothing monthly. When the agreement ends, you pay back their original investment plus a share of your home’s appreciation (or, in rarer down-market cases, they can share in a loss too). That’s it, that’s the whole mechanism.
Four names keep coming up in this space: Unlock, Hometap, Point, and Splitero. They all do roughly the same basic thing, but the differences between them actually matter quite a bit depending on your situation. Here’s the breakdown, without the sales pitch.
The differences all live in the fine print: how long you have to pay it back, how much home value they’ll work with, how strict they are about credit, and what happens if you want out early.
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Best If You Want to Pay It Back Piece by Piece
Most of these companies want their money back in one shot, at the end. Unlock stands out because it lets you make partial payments along the way instead of waiting for a single big settlement. If the idea of owing one large number ten years from now makes you nervous, that flexibility is worth something. Unlock is also fairly loose on property type, it’ll work with second homes, rental units, and multi-unit buildings that some competitors won’t touch, and it doesn’t lean hard on credit score or income the way a traditional lender would.
- Good fit for
Homeowners who like the idea of chipping away at the balance over time rather than facing one big payoff day, or anyone with a rental or second property that other providers won’t finance.
Best If You Want the Biggest Check and a Clean, Ten-Year Runway
Hometap will hand over more cash than most of its competitors, up to $600,000 for the right home, and its process is famously smooth, with a strong online dashboard that actually tells you what your payoff would look like at any given moment. The catch is the term: you’re working within roughly a ten-year window. If you know you’ll sell or refinance well within that time, that’s not a problem at all. If your plans are not clear, it’s worth thinking twice.
- Good fit for
Homeowners who need a larger sum, have a fairly clear decade-long horizon, and want the most polished, easy-to-understand app experience of the bunch.
Best If You Want Maximum Breathing Room
Point gives you up to 30 years to settle up, which is a completely different animal than a ten-year clock. That kind of runway matters if you’re older, if you’re not sure when or if you’ll ever sell, or if you just don’t want a deadline hanging over you. Point is also one of the few that will work with investment properties and LLC-owned homes, which makes it a favorite among real estate investors. It’s been around since 2015, longer than most of its rivals, and it operates in a wide range of states.
- Good fit for
Homeowners who want to set it and forget it, retirees who’d rather let the agreement resolve through their estate than worry about a hard deadline, and real estate investors.
Best If You Want Your Payoff Timed to Your Mortgage, Not a Fixed Calendar
Splitero’s signature feature is something it calls Maturity Match: instead of picking an arbitrary term length, your home equity agreement is timed to line up with however much is left on your actual mortgage. It also tends to work with lower credit scores than some competitors, doesn’t ask about income or employment at all, and moves quickly, often pre-approving within a day or two. The trade-off is that its fees can run a bit higher than the others, and it repays in one lump sum rather than letting you chip away at it.
- Good fit for
Homeowners with less-than-perfect credit, self-employed or retired folks without traditional income to verify, and anyone who likes the idea of their equity agreement quietly ending whenever their mortgage does.
So Which One Is Actually "Best"?
Honestly? There isn’t one. That’s not a cop-out, it’s just how this product works. The right pick comes down to 4 questions:
- How long do you realistically need before you’ll settle up?
- Short and defined → Hometap.
- Open-ended or decades out → Point or Splitero’s mortgage-matched term.
- How’s your credit and income situation?
- Do you want to pay it off gradually or all at once at the end?
- Gradually → Unlock.
- All at once, later → the others.
- Do you hate HEAs/HEIs?
- Just get a refinance.
One Last Thing, Seriously
One last thing worth keeping in mind: whichever company you’re leaning toward, remember what you’re actually doing; you’re not borrowing money, you’re sharing a piece of your home’s future growth with someone else. If your neighborhood really takes off in value over the next several years, that slice you gave up could end up being worth more than what a traditional loan would’ve cost you. That doesn’t make these products a bad deal, they’re genuinely useful, especially if you don’t want a new monthly payment or can’t easily qualify for one. It just means the real cost isn’t always obvious at first glance, so it pays to actually shop around. Get quotes from more than one company, since terms and offers can vary more than you’d expect. And before you sign anything, run the numbers on a few different scenarios and maybe loop in a financial advisor.
Funding in 30-60 days
Unlock – Home Equity Agreement
Access $15K to $500K from your home’s equity with flexibility and no monthly payments.
Funding in 30-45 days
Hometap – Home Equity Investment
Get up to $600,000 to use however you’d like with no monthly payments.
Funding in 3 weeks
Point – Home Equity Agreement
Receive up to $600k of your home equity, your way. Choose maximum flexibility.
Funding in 2+ weeks
Splitero – Home Equity Investment
Receive up to $500,000 of your home equity, without another monthly payment.
The Hometap family of companies utilizes Hometap Equity Partners, LLC and Hometap Homeownership Solutions, LLC to provide Hometap Home Equity Investments (HEI or HEIs). Each entity has the ability to enter into a HEI directly with the consumer:
Hometap Equity Partners, LLC dba Hometap. NMLS ID# 2467867 361 Newbury St, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02115 NMLS Consumer Access
Hometap Homeownership Solutions, LLC dba Hometap. NMLS ID# 2819930 361 Newbury St, Office 450, Boston, MA 02115 NMLS Consumer Access
Hometap Real Estate Equity Partners, Inc. holds real estate brokerage licenses in certain states. California DRE #02191883
A Hometap HEI has a ten (10) year term, during which no monthly or recurring payments are required. Hometap records a lien against the property, in the form of a mortgage or deed of trust, to secure its interest. You may choose to settle the Investment at any time during the term without incurring any penalties by exercising an Owner Repurchase. If you do not settle the HEI by the expiration of the term, your Hometap HEI provider may exercise its right to acquire a percent ownership interest in the property and then work with you to sell the property. You may contact either Hometap entity at hello@hometap.com (for prospective or current applicants) or homeowners@hometap.com (for homeowners with an active HEI) for more information. Eligibility criteria are subject to change. For current criteria, please contact your Hometap HEI provider at (855) 223-3144 or visit www.hometap.com/faqs
