Updated August 13, 2026. Quick answer: a home equity agreement quotes no interest rate, so the only way to compare one against a loan is to compute what it costs a year. Enter the seven terms from your own offer. The calculator returns the settlement, the cash you actually receive after the fee, and the annualised cost — and it also shows what you would owe if your home did not move at all, which is the number that surprises people. Where the terms come from and what they mean is at what these agreements really cost.
The seven inputs, and where to find each one in your offer
| Input | What it is | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Share of value or of the change | Whether the provider’s percentage is applied to the whole home at the end or only to the gain. Different products, same name. | The settlement or repayment section |
| Home value today | The appraised value, before any adjustment. | The appraisal |
| Cash before fees | The gross investment amount, not the wire you receive. | The investment amount |
| The provider’s share | The percentage in the settlement formula. It is not always the same as the percentage of your home the cash represents — one provider’s is 4 times it. | The sharing or option percentage |
| Starting-value discount | How far below the appraisal the gain is measured from. Published figures found range from none to 15%. | “Risk adjustment”, “agreed value” or “starting value” |
| Years until you exit | When you sell, refinance or buy the provider out. | Your own plan, bounded by the term |
| Fee taken from the cash | The processing or transaction fee, deducted before you are paid. | Fees and costs |
The rules it uses, and where they come from
Two formulas, and nothing else. For a share of the change in value, the settlement is the cash back plus the share of the gain measured from the discounted starting value — the structure Point describes as “Future appreciation is based on using the risk adjusted Appreciation Starting Value”. For a share of the whole value, the settlement is the share times the ending value and the cash is not repaid separately, the structure Unlock states as “Unlock’s share of your equity is calculated by taking your home’s ending value and multiplying it by the Unlock percentage”.
The annualised cost is then the rate that grows the cash you actually received into the settlement over the years you held it — compounded, so it is comparable to a rate on a loan. The fee is applied to the cash before that comparison, because a fee deducted at closing is money you never had. Worked example, on the defaults above: $50,000 on a $500,000 home, a 40% share, a 5.0% starting discount, ten years at 3.5% growth and a 3.9% fee settles at $142,120 against $48,050 received — 11.45% a year.
Releasing equity touches everything else you own
The cost of the arrangement is one side of it; what it means for the household’s other assets, income and plans is the other, and an adviser can look at both before anything is signed.
Before you start, what actually happens. The form is run by Kapitalwise, our advisor-matching partner. Kapitalwise sends your details to advisers who pay for the introduction, so expect calls and texts. Clear Money Guide is paid when you submit the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. This is free to you and there is no obligation to hire anyone.
The Kapitalwise form opens here. You stay on this page.
What happens when you press the button
It asks about nine questions (age, investable assets, location), then your name, email and phone number, and verifies the phone by text. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button. Submitting the form does not guarantee an adviser or a match. This matching form is not tax or legal advice. Submitting the form does not guarantee an adviser or a match. This matching form is not tax or legal advice.
What it deliberately does not do
It does not apply a cap, because only one provider found publishes one at a stated level — Aspire’s “Your cost at the end of the agreement is capped at 12% in first 3 years and 16% -18% thereafter (annualized, compounding monthly)” If your agreement has a cap, your real cost is the lower of this figure and that ceiling, and you should ask for the ceiling in writing. It does not model a partial buy-out, which Unlock offers — “You can sell your home or buy out Unlock at any time, and you can even buy out Unlock in partial payments whenever you want over the term.” — and most do not. It does not include third-party closing costs or appraisal fees. And it does not forecast: the growth rate is your assumption, and the second line of the result exists to show you what happens when that assumption is zero.
It also will not tell you whether to do this at all. That question is decided against the alternatives rather than inside this box, and the alternatives carry federal protections an agreement does not: what a HELOC and a home equity loan legally promise, and this does not.
What we could not establish, and are not going to invent
The honest limits of a tool are part of the tool.
- The calculator cannot tell you whether your agreement shares the downside. Some do — Aspire states it — and the arithmetic here follows the contract either way, but only if you enter a negative growth rate to test it.
- It assumes one exit, at one date. Real agreements can end on a sale, a refinance, a buy-out or the end of the term, and some charge differently by route.
- It cannot check your provider’s starting value. If the offer does not state the discount as a number, the most important input here is one you do not have — and that is worth treating as a finding about the offer.
Sources
The two settlement formulas and every provider term named on this page were read from the providers’ own pages on 2026-08-13 and quoted verbatim.
| What it establishes | Read at |
|---|---|
| Point takes a share of APPRECIATION, measured from a risk-adjusted starting value. | Point, How it works |
| Unlock also takes a share of the ENDING VALUE of the whole house. | Unlock, FAQ |
| Unlock permits partial buyouts during the term. | Unlock, FAQ |
| Unison’s share of the change in value is a MULTIPLE of the percentage it invested. | Unison, FAQ – sharing percentage |
| Aspire discounts the appraised value by 15% – the largest starting-value discount found. | Aspire, FAQ |
| Exactly one provider publishes an ANNUALIZED cost cap – the number every other provider’s marketing omits. | Aspire, home page |
An illustration tool, not financial advice, an offer, or a prediction. It computes only what you enter. Provider terms cited were published on 2026-08-13 and change without notice; your own agreement governs. Nothing is sold on this page.