Point Home Equity Review 2026: Costs, Who Qualifies, Pros and Cons

This Point home equity review looks at what the company’s Home Equity Investment costs, who could qualify, and what customers and complaint records show, using the figures Point publishes on its website.

What is Point, exactly?

Point is the trade name of Point Digital Finance, Inc., which is based in Palo Alto, California. The company has said it was founded in 2014, and its own timeline shows a first funding round in 2016 led by Andreessen Horowitz. The main product is the Home Equity Investment, or HEI: Point hands you a lump sum of cash now in exchange for a share of your home’s future appreciation. There are no monthly payments, and you buy back your equity in one lump sum at any point in a 30-year term, usually through a home sale or a refinance.

Point says it has funded more than 30,000 homeowners. What you sign is a real estate option agreement that is recorded against your property, and Point places a lien on the home to secure it. Point itself notes that an HEI is classified as a mortgage loan in some states. The company also offers a HELOC, which this review doesn’t cover.

This kind of product also goes by home equity agreement or home equity sharing agreement. Our home equity guides cover other ways to use the equity in your home.

Is Point available where you live?

As of this update, Point serves select regions of the 29 states below and Washington, D.C., and says availability may vary by county within those states:

To confirm your own address, you have to prequalify. If Point isn’t offering the HEI in your area, it keeps a waitlist.

How Point works in practice

It starts with prequalifying online, which Point describes as taking about 60 seconds with a soft credit inquiry. If you go ahead, you finish a full application, upload documents and authorize a hard credit inquiry. Point then arranges a valuation of the home, reviews the title and finalizes your offer and pricing.

You close in person with a notary. A federally required three-day rescission period follows, during which you could cancel at no cost, and funds typically arrive by wire or check within three to five business days after it. Point reports that some homeowners close in as little as three weeks, and that the timeline depends on how fast documents, the valuation and any title issues are resolved.

During the term you stay the owner of the home and make no payments to Point. When you’re ready, you buy back your equity in one lump sum. Point doesn’t allow partial repayments. If you exit within the first year, Point uses your initial appraised value as the exit value unless you pay for a new appraisal.

Point eligibility requirements

These are the starting points Point publishes. Meeting them doesn’t mean you’ll be approved, and the criteria could change.

What the cash could go toward

The cash is yours to spend as you like. Point notes that you may be required to pay off judgments, liens or certain debts with part of it at closing. These are the uses Point names:

Buying back your equity could cost far more than the cash you receive, so the uses that hold up are the ones that leave you better off for years, like clearing high-cost debt or adding value to the home.

What Point costs: pricing and fees

Point doesn’t charge out-of-pocket fees during the application. Closing fees are deducted from the amount you receive.

Example: on $50,000, 3.9% comes to $1,950, so the $2,000 minimum applies. On $100,000, the processing fee is $3,900. The third-party fees above are added on top.

Costs come at the end too. Point lists a reconveyance fee of $40 to $70 and a recording fee of $50 to $250 when its lien is released, and it may order another appraisal of up to $1,000 to set the home’s value when you exit.

How the buyback amount is worked out (the HEI percentage)

Point works on a share of appreciation model. When you buy back your equity, you owe what you originally received plus an agreed percentage of your home’s appreciation. Point calls that share the HEI percentage. It’s locked in when you sign and depends on your credit profile, your equity, the property and the amount you request.

Appreciation isn’t measured from your appraised value. Point sets an Appreciation Starting Value below the appraisal, which it describes as a cushion for the risk of not requiring monthly payments. In the example on its product page, the starting value is 27% below the home’s value. In practice, a home that only holds its value still shows appreciation in Point’s formula.

Point doesn’t publish the HEI percentage. Point explains that the figure rests on factors such as your credit profile, the amount you request, the property and your available equity, so prequalifying is how you see yours.

Example: $50,000 received on a $500,000 home

These figures are Point’s own, taken from the cost example on its product page: a homeowner receives $50,000 on a home worth $500,000, with an Appreciation Starting Value of $365,000, and sells after five years.

Start with the middle row, because it’s the ordinary case. The home gains 3.5% a year, and the $50,000 costs $64,300 on top of the original amount after five years. In the top row, the home has to lose more than a quarter of its value before the amount due dips slightly under what was received, and Point itself notes that paying back less than you received isn’t typical.

How the Homeowner Protection Cap works

When you exit, Point runs two calculations and you pay the lower one. The first is the appreciation formula above. The second is a capped amount based on a fixed annual rate, compounded monthly, on the cash you received. Point calls this the Homeowner Protection Cap and says it’s most likely to apply in the first few years, when the gap between the appraisal and the starting value makes the home look as if it has appreciated a lot.

Point doesn’t publish the cap rate. Point notes that your credit profile helps determine your maximum offer amount, your HEI percentage and your cap, with better credit generally leading to more favorable pricing. Point’s estimates also show an Equivalent APR, a comparison figure it calculates so you can set the cost next to a HELOC or a cash-out refinance. Ask to see it for several exit years.

The pros and cons of Point

Here’s how the published terms net out.

Is Point legit? What we found

Yes. Point is an established company and not a scam. Point Digital Finance, Inc. shows NMLS ID 1610752 and publishes lender licenses for 20 states and Washington, D.C. on its licenses page. The Better Business Bureau has accredited it since October 2015 and grades it A+, and Point reports more than 30,000 funded homeowners. Legit doesn’t mean right for you, though, so read the customer feedback and complaint records below before you decide.

On how the HEI itself is regulated, Point says the product is offered as a licensed mortgage product in Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin, and that HEIs offered in other states are not currently required to be licensed. In a December 2021 letter to California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, Point asked the regulator to add registration and data reporting requirements for home equity investment products.

What Point customers say

Complaints about Point

The Better Business Bureau shows 30 complaints against Point in the last three years, and 12 of them were closed in the last 12 months. The recent ones we read concerned offer letters arriving by mail, how an existing agreement was handled, and getting questions answered during an application.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s public complaint database lists 44 complaints naming Point Digital Finance, Inc. received between October 6, 2023 and October 6, 2026. All 44 are marked closed with explanation. The most common issues recorded are applying (16), trouble during the payment process (13) and closing (9). For context, Point says it has funded more than 30,000 homeowners.

How Point compares with other home equity investment companies

Point is one of several companies offering this kind of product. Here’s how it stacks up against two others a Point shopper is likely to weigh, using the figures each company publishes on its own website.

Point is the only one of the three with a 30-year term, which helps if a 10-year deadline is the sticking point. Hometap invests up to 27% of a home’s value, against a general limit of 20% at Point, and publishes its percentages and its cap, so you could see more of the cost before you apply. Unlock matches Point’s minimum credit score of 500, publishes a cost limit of 19.9% a year and allows partial buyouts during its 10-year term, which Point doesn’t. Unison also runs up to 30 years but shares in your home’s value differently: see Unison vs Point.

More: Hometap review, in full

More: Unlock review, in full

More: Hometap vs Point compared in full

How applying for a Point HEI works

The first step is quick. Everything after it is a full underwriting process, so plan on weeks, not days.

What to do if Point turns you down

Point explains that the specific reason is always given in your decision notice. What you do next depends on which requirement it was.

If your credit score is under 500, it’s below the published minimum at all three companies above. Point notes you could apply again at any time once your score improves.

If equity is the problem, paying down your mortgage or waiting for the home to appreciate could get you there. A home equity calculator will show where you stand today.

If the property is the problem, check the other companies’ lists. Hometap includes manufactured homes among the property types it invests in, and it lists Alabama, Delaware, Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire and New Mexico, which Point doesn’t. Unlock‘s list includes Vermont and Wyoming. Our Splitero review covers one more company to check, and Point vs Splitero sets the two side by side.

If your state is the problem across the board, a credit product is usually the practical route. We have no home equity agreement company to point you to in Alaska, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota or West Virginia, and in Texas only one company lists the state. Our HEI vs HELOC comparison explains how a HELOC differs.

Point review: bottom line

Point does what it advertises: a lump sum of up to $600,000, no monthly payments, a minimum credit score of 500 and as long as 30 years to buy back your equity. It’s an established, licensed company with strong customer ratings.

The cost is where to slow down. Appreciation is measured from a starting value below your appraisal, the percentage Point shares in and the rate behind its cap aren’t published, and the whole amount is due in one lump sum. If you’d be counting on a rising home value to cover it, or you expect to move within a year or two, look at other options first.

Point questions, answered

How we put this Point review together

This review is Banks Done Right’s editorial view, built on primary sources. We went through Point’s product pages, its licenses page and its help center articles on eligibility, states, fees, pricing, the Homeowner Protection Cap, the application, closing and the end of the term. We also read Point’s profiles on Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau and searched the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s complaint database. Hometap and Unlock figures come from their own websites. License numbers are the ones Point publishes.

We didn’t give Point a star score of our own. The stars at the top of this page show its customer rating on Trustpilot. Without a score, here’s what we looked at and what we found.

Sources