You're Sitting on a Fortune in Home Equity. These Three Products Let You Use It Without Selling.

Let's say your home is worth $600,000 and you have about $350,000 in equity built up. That's not a number you can spend at the grocery store, pay off your credit cards with, or invest anywhere. It just sits there, locked inside a physical asset that you live in, while you carry a 22% balance on a card or let a business opportunity slip by for lack of capital.

Here's what most people don't know: there are three structurally different products designed to unlock that equity without you having to sell your home or give up your low mortgage rate. And the gap between knowing they exist and actually using the right one for your situation could easily be worth $30,000 or more over a five-year window.

I spent real time on all three. The numbers revealed something I didn't expect.

Why Your Mortgage Rate Is Actually Working Against You Right Now

If you locked in a rate below 3.5% between 2020 and 2022, you are not alone. Roughly 12 million American homeowners did the same thing. And almost none of them are going to refinance at today's rates north of 7% just to pull cash out. That would mean trading a monthly payment of, say, $1,700 on a $400,000 balance for something closer to $2,400 or more. You'd be paying thousands extra every year just to access money you already own.

The three products below side-step that problem entirely. They sit behind your first mortgage and leave your existing rate untouched. While we may earn a commission from partner links on this page, as usual, they don’t influence our reviews or tips.

Option 1: The Traditional HELOC

A Home Equity Line of Credit works like a revolving credit line that your home secures. You borrow what you need, pay interest only on what you've drawn, and repay over time. It is the most established option of the three and the one most lenders offer in some form.

What this looks like on a $600,000 home:

Say you owe $200,000 on your mortgage. Upstart allows borrowing up to 95% of your home's value minus what you owe. That math: ($600,000 x 0.95) = $570,000 minus $200,000 = $370,000 in borrowable equity. Upstart's ceiling is $250,000, so you could access the full maximum. Rates currently run from 6.52% to 18.00% APR depending on your credit profile.

What makes Upstart's version stand out is the draw structure. Each time you pull funds, that draw carries its own fixed rate locked at that moment. Draw $60,000 today at 7.5%, then draw $40,000 in six months when rates may be lower, and each draw has its own protected rate. That structure protects you from rate volatility over the draw period.

The entire application is digital. Conditional approval can come in minutes, and funded HELOCs have closed in as few as two days. You need a minimum credit score of 600.

One thing you must understand before applying:

Upstart requires an initial draw of at least 80% of your approved credit limit. If you're approved for $200,000, you are expected to draw a minimum of $160,000 at closing. At 7.5% APR, that's roughly $1,000 per month in interest right away, even if you didn't need all of it immediately. This is not a minor detail. If you only needed $40,000, this structure is likely not the right product for you.

Also worth checking before you apply: Upstart's HELOC is available for primary residences only and is not offered in every state.

The draw period is three years. After that, no new draws can be made. Repayment terms run 10 or 15 years.

This is the right fit if:

• You have a specific, planned project with ongoing funding needs

• You want fixed, predictable rates on each draw

• You can handle (and anticipated) a monthly payment from day one

• You have documented income and a solid credit history

This is not the right fit if:

• You only need a small, one-time amount (the mandatory 80% draw would be inefficient)

• You want casual, day-to-day access to equity

• You live in a state where Upstart isn't available

Option 2: Your Home Equity in Your Wallet

Trovy has built something that sounds almost too convenient to be real: a credit card powered by your home equity. You qualify for a HELOC, and Trovy attaches a physical Mastercard to it. Every purchase you make draws directly from your home equity line. No portal logins to request a draw. No wire transfer wait times. No per-draw fees. Just swipe and go.

For a homeowner who already uses a credit card daily and wants their equity as accessible as their checking account, this changes the experience dramatically.

The numbers on a $600,000 home:

Credit limits run from $10,000 to $100,000 based on your equity, credit history, and financial profile. Interest rates fall between 5% and 18% APR, which is far below the 24% average that most people currently pay on a standard credit card. There's no annual fee and no draw fee on purchases. Cash back rewards are also available on spending.

Here's where it gets interesting from a tax angle: the interest you pay on a home equity product may be tax-deductible when the funds go toward qualifying home improvements. If you're in the 32% federal bracket and you're paying 8% APR on $50,000 run through your Trovy Card for a renovation, your effective after-tax rate drops to roughly 5.4%. That's a real number worth knowing.

For someone carrying $30,000 in credit card debt at 22%, transferring that balance to Trovy and paying it down at 7% instead saves approximately $4,500 per year in interest. That's not a rounding error.

To qualify: You need a minimum credit score of 640. Your property must be valued at $100,000 or more, and it can be a primary residence, second home, or investment property. Properties held in LLCs or business entities are not eligible.

One honest caution:

Because your home is the collateral, a Trovy Card missed payment isn't the same as forgetting to pay a Visa bill. Treat your Trovy Card balance with the discipline you'd give a utility bill. The access is frictionless by design, which makes it easy to spend carelessly. Go in with a spending plan.

This is the right fit if:

• You want ongoing, flexible access to equity for everyday spending or rolling expenses

• You're consolidating high-interest credit card debt at a significantly lower rate

• You want the simplicity of a card rather than a formal draw process

• You're carrying renovation or home improvement expenses over time

This is not the right fit if:

• You need a large, single lump sum

• You need more than $100,000

• The property is in an LLC

Option 3: The Home Equity Investment

Note: You may have heard this called a "leaseback." A true sale-leaseback involves selling your home to an investor and renting it back. What Point offers is different. It's a home equity investment (HEI), also called an equity sharing agreement. You keep full ownership of your home and stay in it. No sale, no rent. Just a cash advance against your future appreciation.

Point gives you money today in exchange for a percentage stake in your home's future value. You receive a lump sum, make absolutely zero monthly payments, and settle up with Point at a time of your choosing within a 30-year window.

Here's exactly how this works on a $600,000 home:

Let's say Point invests $100,000 in your home. You get $100,000 in cash right now. No monthly payments. The clock starts running on a 30-year term. At any point during those 30 years, including when you sell or decide to buy Point out, you pay back their portion. The exact share depends on the terms of your individual agreement, which Point discloses upfront.

The real cost scenario:

If your $600,000 home appreciates at 4% per year, in 10 years it's worth approximately $888,000. In a typical Point agreement structure, if Point's share amounts to, say, 15% to 20% of the home's value at settlement, the payment could range from $133,200 to $177,600. They invested $100,000 and received $133,200 to $177,600 back, roughly 10 to 12 years later. That's their return. For comparison, if you had taken a HELOC at 7.5% over the same 10 years with full repayment, you'd have paid approximately $56,000 in interest.

This makes the HEI more expensive than a HELOC in a rising market. But it costs you nothing monthly, which is a fundamentally different trade-off if cash flow is tight.

What makes Point accessible: The minimum credit score is only 500, and there is no income requirement whatsoever. This makes it the most realistic option for self-employed borrowers, retirees with limited documented income, or anyone going through a financial transition. Point funds from $30,000 up to $600,000.

The processing fee runs up to 3.9% of the funding amount ($2,000 minimum). Standard closing costs apply on top of that.

Point carries a 4.7-star rating on Trustpilot from over 3,000 reviews and is A+ accredited with the Better Business Bureau.

The risk you need to take seriously:

At settlement, you are writing one large check. If your home appreciates significantly, that check can be much larger than the original amount you received. Unlike a loan where you know exactly what you owe at any given month, the HEI settlement figure is tied to your home's market value at that future point. Go in with a realistic projection and, ideally, a plan for how you'll handle settlement, whether that's through savings, a future sale, or a refinance.

This is the right fit if:

• You need a large lump sum but truly cannot afford a new monthly payment

• You're self-employed, recently retired, or have income that doesn't photograph well on a loan application

• You want large-scale access, up to $600,000, that traditional lenders won't offer

• You expect your home to appreciate modestly rather than rapidly

This is not the right fit if:

• Your home is in a fast-appreciating market and you can qualify for a regular HELOC

• You're planning to sell in the next one to two years and want to maximize your net proceeds

• You need the certainty of knowing your exact cost ahead of time

A Simple Decision Tree

Step 1: How much do you need?
If you need more than $250,000, Point is the only one of these three that can reach that level.

Step 2: Can you handle a monthly payment?
If the answer is no, go straight to Point. The other two require regular interest payments.

Step 3: How do you want to access the money?
If you want everyday spending flexibility, Trovy wins. If you want structured draws for a project, Upstart is better suited.

Step 4: Is your income easy to document?
If you're self-employed or retired, Point's no-income requirement may make it the only door that's actually open.

What to Do Right Now

Don't walk away from this without taking one concrete step.

• Pull your home's current estimated value from Zillow, Redfin, or your county assessor.

• Subtract what you owe on your mortgage. That gap is your equity.

• Compare that number against the table above and see which product aligns with your access needs.

• Check your credit score for free through your bank or a service like Credit Karma, then match it to the minimum requirements above.

If you're leaning toward a HELOC, start with Upstart's online application, which takes minutes and won't hurt your credit for a rate check.

If you want card-based access, Trovy's site walks you through eligibility in a few quick questions.

If you need a large lump sum with no monthly obligation, Point's site shows you a preliminary offer based on your home value and equity before you commit to anything.

Your home has been building wealth for years. These three tools are the practical way to put that wealth to work while you still own it.