Unison vs Point: Your Credit Score and How the Share Is Measured Decide It

Unison vs Point is a match between the two products that can run the longest. Each lets you go up to 30 years with no monthly payments, and each ties what you owe to your home’s price. They measure it differently. Point takes a share of appreciation above a starting value set well under your appraisal, and limits the result with a cap. Unison shares in the change in value from a starting value 5% under your appraisal. The credit bar differs too: 500 at Point, generally 620 at Unison.

Unison and Point at a glance

Every figure below is from each company’s own website, as we published it in our reviews. Both record a lien on the home to secure their interest.

More in our reviews: Point review, with costs, requirements, pros and cons, and the Unison review.

The differences that decide the outcome

Credit score and what each one checks

Point requires a minimum credit score of 500 and doesn’t verify income or employment. Unison says applicants generally need a mid-FICO score of at least 620, and it reviews your income and property as well. For Unison, the allowable loan-to-value and debt-to-income levels go down as the credit score goes down. If your score falls between 500 and 619, Point is the only one of the two worth a look. Above 620, your score still shapes what Point offers: it helps set your maximum amount, your HEI percentage and your cap.

How the share is measured

With Point, you owe what you received plus an agreed percentage of your home’s appreciation, which Point calls the HEI percentage. The gain is measured from an Appreciation Starting Value that Point sets below the appraisal. In the example on its product page, a $500,000 home gets a starting value of $365,000, so a home that only holds its value still shows a gain. Point doesn’t publish the HEI percentage or the cap rate. Both come with your offer.

With Unison, you return the amount you received, plus or minus its Investor Percentage of the difference between the Original Agreed Value (your appraisal less a 5% Risk Adjustment) and the ending value. Unison says its percentage is typically four times the percentage it invested. Receive 10% of the home’s value and it shares in 40% of the change. On a $500,000 home, the starting number is $475,000.

What happens when the home loses value

Point says it shares in a loss if the value falls below the starting value, so you may owe less than you received, though it notes that isn’t typical. In its example the home has to lose 6.25% a year for five years before the amount due dips just under the $50,000 received.

Unison’s rule has a time limit. If you sell in the first five years, or buy Unison out at any point, it doesn’t share in a decrease, and you owe at least what you received plus its share of the Risk Adjustment. After the restriction period, a sale at a lower value could mean you owe less than you received.

Caps on the cost

Point runs two calculations at the end and you pay the lower one: the appreciation formula, or the Homeowner Protection Cap, which is a fixed annual rate compounded monthly on the cash you received. Point says the cap is most likely to apply in the first few years. Unison has no overall cap that it publishes. An Equity Appreciation Limit caps its return if you end the agreement in the first five years, but the rate isn’t published. If your home grows fast, that’s a real difference.

Term and the end of it

Both can run as long as 30 years, and both let you settle sooner. When the term ends, Point says it may exercise its option under the agreement and become a co-owner with the right to sell the home. Unison says you need to buy it out or sell, and that a refinance to fund the buyout might be possible but isn’t guaranteed. Unison also warns that refinancing during the term could be harder, because some lenders won’t lend behind an agreement that shares in appreciation.

What each one costs at the same sale price

Point publishes one cost example. It’s the cleanest place to line the two up, as long as you remember what’s real and what’s assumed.

The inputs: a $500,000 home, $50,000 received and a sale after five years. The Point amounts are Point’s own, from its product page, and they depend on an HEI percentage and a cap that Point set for that example. The Unison amounts are ours. They apply Unison’s published method with an Investor Percentage of exactly 40% (10% of the home’s value times four), a starting value of $475,000, no remodeling or maintenance adjustments, and a sale after the restriction period.

At a sale price of $593,800, Unison’s method comes to $97,520 and Point’s example to $114,300. At $653,500 they nearly meet, at $121,400 and $119,200. Past that point Point’s example is capped and Unison’s keeps climbing: by our arithmetic a sale at $700,000 would mean $140,000 at Unison. So in this illustration Unison costs less in a moderate market and more in a hot one.

Don’t over-read it. Your Point offer could carry a different percentage and cap, and your Unison percentage is set in your agreement. The point of the table is the shape: Point’s cost levels off against its cap, and Unison’s keeps following the home’s value up.

Fees and closing costs

Both charge 3.9% and take it out of your proceeds at closing. Point has a $2,000 minimum, so it costs a little more on the smallest amounts. Above about $51,282 the two are identical.

Third-party costs vary by state and county. Point lists an appraisal of up to $1,000, title and government charges of $1,000 to $1,600, a credit report of $40 to $50 and a $12 flood certification, plus $130 if counseling is required and $199 for each lien payoff, up to $597. At the end it lists a reconveyance fee of $40 to $70 and a recording fee of $50 to $250. Unison publishes an appraisal of $450 to $1,250, a home inspection of $650 to $1,050 and settlement costs of $700 to $1,750.

Who qualifies

Both evaluate each home individually, so treat these as published starting points. Meeting them doesn’t mean an approval.

States served by each company

Point serves select regions of 29 states and Washington, D.C., and says availability may vary by county. Unison covers 22 states and D.C. Eighteen states, plus D.C., are on both lists.

Getting an estimate from each

Neither estimate commits you to anything. Point puts prequalifying at about 60 seconds with a soft credit inquiry. After the full application, a valuation and a title review, you sign with a notary, wait out a three-day rescission period, and funds typically arrive three to five business days after that.

Unison says a quote takes 2 minutes with zero impact on your credit. You then apply online or with one of its home equity specialists, and Unison arranges an independent appraisal.

When neither is the right fit

Sometimes the honest answer is somebody else.

Your credit score is under 500. That’s below the published minimum at both.

You’d rather not share in the home’s growth at all. If you can document income and carry a payment, a HELOC keeps all of the gain. Our HEI vs HELOC comparison walks through it.

Your state is on neither list. Hometap lists Alabama, Idaho, Montana and New Hampshire, Splitero lists Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, Nada includes Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, and Unlock includes Vermont and Wyoming. In Alaska, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia we have no home equity agreement company to point you to, and in Texas only one lists the state. A HELOC or home equity loan is usually the practical route there.

You want a wider field. Our comparison of home equity agreement companies covers more options.

Unison vs Point in short

Point is the lower credit bar, the larger ceiling and the cap on the cost. Unison is the cost that follows the home’s value, a starting value only 5% under your appraisal and a higher credit bar. Both give you a long runway with no monthly payments, and both will cost you far more than you received if the home does well.

More: See more home equity agreement companies, compared

Unison vs Point questions, answered

How we put this comparison together

This comparison is Banks Done Right’s editorial view. Every figure about Point and Unison comes from our own published reviews of each company, which are built on the companies’ product pages, FAQs and help centers, read on October 6, 2026. We did not give either company a score. The Unison amounts in the sale price table and the fee table are our own arithmetic from the published methods, and the state overlaps are counted from the two published lists.

Sources (2)

The company figures were read on each company’s own website on October 6, 2026. Our reviews list those pages.

1. Banks Done Right. Point Home Equity Review. banksdoneright.com. Accessed October 13, 2026. Company figures in it were read October 6, 2026 from point.com and help.point.com.
2. Banks Done Right. Unison Review 2026. banksdoneright.com. Accessed October 13, 2026. Company figures in it were read October 6, 2026 from unison.com.