Access $20,000 to $600,000 of your home equity. No monthly payments. No interest. Credit from 500.
Nada is the company you end up at when the bigger names do not operate where you live. In Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma it is the only home equity investment on our list that can fund you at all.
Nada offers a home equity investment. You take cash now, and Nada receives an agreed share of your home’s value when you settle within a 10 year window. No monthly payment, no interest rate.
Short version: Nada is legitimate and unusually flexible about what kind of property it will consider, including second homes and rentals. The problem is reach. It runs in 12 states, the smallest footprint here, so for most homeowners this is not the first call. Here is the honest breakdown.
If you are still deciding between product types rather than companies, our guide to HELOC alternatives lays out every way to reach your equity without taking on a monthly payment.
What Is Nada?
Nada is a home equity investment provider. It is not a lender and this is not a loan, which is the distinction that governs everything else about the product.
Instead of lending you money and charging interest, Nada gives you a lump sum and takes a share of what your home is worth at settlement. You keep the title. You keep living there. Nothing gets added to your monthly budget.
Nada will also sit behind your existing mortgage as a junior lien, and it is the rare company in this category that will look at a second home or an investment property rather than only your primary residence.
For the wider category view, see our roundup of the best home equity investment companies.
How the Nada agreement works
Enter your address and an estimate of your home value. It takes a couple of minutes and the credit pull is soft, so your score does not move.
Nada reviews your equity position and comes back with how much you could access and what share it would receive at settlement.
If you move forward, Nada verifies the home’s value. Your home needs to appraise at $175,000 or more to qualify.
Money lands in your account. No monthly payment starts, because there is no loan.
Any time within the 10 year term you sell, refinance, or buy the agreement out. Nada receives its agreed share of the home’s value at that point.
Fees and costs
Nada charges a transaction fee that comes out of your funding rather than your pocket, and the percentage is set in your individual offer rather than published as a flat rate. Get the figure in writing before you sign.
On top of that you pay the standard closing items: appraisal, title, escrow and recording fees. Those also come out of the funding, so you net less than the headline number.
As with every company in this category, the fee is not the real cost. The share Nada receives at settlement scales with how much your home appreciates, and in a fast rising market that share can cost more than a HELOC would have.
Never take the first offer
Homeowners regularly see six figure differences between companies on the same property in the same week. Compare before you commit.
See How the Companies Compare →Free estimates, no obligationEligibility requirements
Credit score from around 500 with no minimum income and no asset requirements. Your home must appraise at $175,000 or more. Funding runs from $20,000 to $600,000 and is capped at 30% of your home’s value. Second homes and investment properties are eligible, though investment properties need a 720 score and cap at $100,000.
State availability
Nada operates in 12 states: Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Washington. In Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma it is the only company in this category that can fund you.
Pros and cons: the full picture
Pros
- Credit score from around 500, matching the lowest bar in this category
- The only option in Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma
- No minimum income and no asset requirements
- Second homes and investment properties are eligible, unlike most rivals
- Can sit behind your existing mortgage as a junior lien
- Soft credit pull, so checking does not affect your score
Cons
- Smallest footprint in this category at 12 states and no D.C.
- 10 year term, shorter than Point or Unison at up to 30
- Your home must appraise at $175,000 or more
- Investment properties need a 720 score and cap at $100,000
- Funding is capped at 30% of your home’s value
- The transaction fee is quoted per offer rather than published
Why the 12 state footprint decides everything
With most companies in this category you weigh terms against cost. With Nada you mostly weigh geography, because the decision is usually made for you before you get that far.
If you are in Arkansas, Louisiana or Oklahoma, Nada is the only home equity investment on our list that operates there, so the comparison is not Nada versus a rival, it is Nada versus a HELOC or nothing at all.
If you are in any of the other nine states it serves, Point serves most of them too and does so with a lower entry bar on property value, a higher cap relative to your equity and a term three times as long. In that case get both numbers and let the offers decide.
Nada vs. competitors
Here is the thing nobody tells you about comparing these companies: you cannot do it from a table. One homeowner in a forum thread had two of them come back $175,000 apart on the same house in the same week. Same property, same equity, same month. The spread was not about fees or terms, it was about how each company valued the home and priced the risk.
This review
Which one to pull a number from
Point if it operates where you live. Around the same 500 credit floor, no income requirement, up to 30 years to settle instead of 10, and 29 states plus D.C. For most homeowners this is the stronger of the two.
Hometap if you want the most established option. They go to $600,000, accept credit from 585 with no income requirement, and run the same 10 year structure Nada does across 26 states.
Nada if you are in Arkansas, Louisiana or Oklahoma, or if the property is a second home or a rental. In those cases it is not the best of several options, it is the only one on this list that will take you.
All of them are free to check and none of them obligate you to anything. Pulling two numbers takes about ten minutes and it is the only way to know which one is actually better for your property.
Is Nada right for you?
Nada fits if
- You are in Arkansas, Louisiana or Oklahoma, where nothing else here operates
- The property is a second home or an investment property
- Your credit is under 585 and traditional lenders have said no
- You cannot document income and need that not to matter
- You need at least $20,000 and your home appraises above $175,000
Look elsewhere if
- Point or Hometap operate in your state, since both offer more
- You need more than 30% of your home’s value
- Your home appraises under $175,000
- You want a term longer than 10 years to control your exit timing
- You can qualify for a HELOC, which is cheaper over most timelines
If you land in the right column, price a HELOC first. Our guide to the best HELOC lenders covers the options, and several do a soft credit pull so checking costs nothing. If speed is your constraint, see which options fund quickest in our guide to getting a home equity loan fast, and for the wider tradeoffs read our breakdown of home equity agreement pros and cons.
Frequently asked questions
My final take
Nada is a niche pick rather than a headline one, and that is not a criticism so much as a description. In three states it is the only home equity investment you can get, and in those states it is genuinely valuable.
Everywhere else it serves, Point covers most of the same ground with a longer term, no $175,000 property floor and a higher cap relative to your equity. If both operate where you live, get both numbers and let the offers decide rather than the marketing.
Either way, get more than one number. That is the only advice in this category that is true for everybody.
Nada
Home equity investment covering 12 states, the smallest footprint in this category, but the only option in Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma and one of the few that will fund a second home or a rental.
