Unlock is a team of consumer finance and real estate finance professionals who help homeowners get the cash they need without accumulating more debt. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company leverages home equity agreements to provide flexible, personalized solutions to homeowners from varying financial backgrounds.
What Is Unlock Home Equity?
Unlock allows you to access your home’s equity and sell a stake in exchange for cash now, even if you have high levels of debt or less than perfect credit. You can use the funds to pay off debt, cover financial emergencies, boost your nest egg, make home improvements, diversify your rental portfolio, or however else you see fit.
How Does Unlock Work?
Here’s a breakdown of how Unlock works:
- Phase 1: Use the online calculator to determine how much cash you’re potentially eligible to receive from Unlock. When you input your address, home value, and debt on the property, an estimate will be generated, along with the stake Unlock will take in your home’s future value. (Quick note: Be mindful that an independent third-party appraisal determines the current value of your home).
- Phase 2: Complete the online application. It takes between five and ten minutes of your time, and Unlock only performs a soft credit check. So, your credit score won’t take a hit when you apply.
- Phase 3: Analyze the proposed offer from Unlock. Compute the desired amount of equity you want to sell to Unlock. To illustrate, you can opt to access 10% of your home’s current equity in exchange for 16% of your home’s future value.
- Phase 4: Seal the deal and receive your cash. The funds are yours to use however you see fit.
- Phase 5: You can end the agreement at any time with Unlock by selling your home or with a buyout. If you decide to sell, Unlock gets paid back out of the sales proceeds. Partial buyouts are also permitted during the ten-year contractual agreement after the first six months.
How Much Equity Can You Unlock?
Unlock offers the opportunity to access between $30,000 and $500,000. The amount you are eligible for depends on your home’s current value, your outstanding mortgage balance, credit lines tied to the property, your creditworthiness, and how you use the house. Generally, homeowners that occupy their property receive larger cash offers.
Terms of Unlock’s Home Equity Agreement
Unlock’s Home Equity Agreement comes with a ten-year term. When the term ends, you must settle the agreement by selling your home or buying Unlock out.
Costs and Fees of a Home Equity Agreement
An origination fee of 3 percent of Unlock’s investment applies at closing. However, Unlock does not assess additional fees or monthly payments for the duration of the agreement.
What do you need to qualify for an Unlock Home Equity Agreement?
Unlock makes it easy for homeowners to qualify for funding. Generally, you want to meet these criteria:
- Be a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident Alien with a Green Card
- Have a valid Social Security number
- Have a minimum FICO score of 500
- Have at least 20 percent equity built up in your home
- Have no more than one 90-day mortgage delinquency in the past two years
- Have no pending litigation or judgments related to the property
- Own a single-family home, condominium, townhome, or two to four-unit property (both owner and non-owner occupied residential real estate properties are eligible)
There’s no income requirement to use the program, unlike what you’ll find with other home equity products. However, Unlock may require income verification for risky transactions. If you plan to use the program for a rental property, Unlock will likely verify the rental income.
How to Get Started with Unlock
At the moment of writing, Unlock invests in properties located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and Washington state. However, they are adding more states, so it is best to check if you are eligible by entering your address in the online form here.
If you have a property in one of these states and want to move forward, connect with a team member to learn more about the qualification criteria and any documentation you’ll need to complete your application. Be prepared to provide a copy of your government-issued identification, mortgage statement(s), homeowners insurance declaration page(s), lease agreement or proof of rental income (if applicable), and trust documents (if applicable).
Once you’ve gathered the required documents, fill out the form to get pre-qualified. Unlock will review your application, documents and order an appraisal and inspection of your property. If approved, you will receive an Investment Closing Statement outlining the terms of the agreement.
The entire process typically takes around 14-30 days but could be sooner. It depends on when the appraisal and home inspection are completed.
