Aspire HEI Review: How This Home Equity Investment Compares in 2025

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Our take: Aspire’s home equity investment (HEI) is one of the more homeowner-friendly options out there. It shares only in your home’s change in value—not the full property value—which helps keep costs better aligned with homeowners. You also get lower fees, a longer 15-year term, and the backing of a long-standing, publicly traded company. Just keep in mind that Aspire requires stronger credit and caps funding at $250,000.

Home Equity Investment

• No monthly payments
• 12% max repayment cost in first 3 years, 16% – 18% after
• Lower fees than competitors

• Higher credit score requirement than competitors
• Lower max funding amount than competitors
• Limited to 11 states plus Washington, D.C.

Rates (APR)	None
Funding amount	$35,000 – $250,000
Term length	15 years
Min. credit score required	660

Table of Contents

1. What is Aspire?
2. How it works
3. Who is eligible?
4. Pros and cons
5. Customer reviews
6. Alternatives
   1. vs. Hometap
   2. vs. Unlock
   3. vs. Point

What is Aspire?

The Aspire HEI is a newer home equity investment (also referred to as a home equity agreement, or HEA) offering. Its parent company, Redwood Trust, launched Aspire in September 2023. HEIs are relatively new themselves; some of Aspire HEI’s core competitors launched within the last decade.

The Aspire HEI allows homeowners to tap into the equity they’ve built in their homes in a way that’s unique from traditional home equity loans and lines of credit. Instead of making monthly payments (with interest) on a home equity loan, homeowners receive a lump sum of cash in exchange for a share of their home’s future change in value.

Redwood Trust is headquartered in Mill Valley, California. Its Aspire HEI product is currently available in the following states:

• Arizona
• California
• Colorado
• Florida
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Utah
• Virginia
• Washington
• Washington, D.C.

Redwood Trust is currently working to expand the Aspire HEI platform to Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

How it works

At a high level, HEIs sound straightforward. But when you look at the fine print, they can be real head-scratchers. The Aspire HEI is no different.

Here’s how the HEI program works at a glance, but always read the fine print of any agreement carefully (perhaps with a financial advisor or lawyer) before moving forward:

1. Apply

Review Aspire’s website to ensure you’re eligible for a home equity investment. (More on that below.) Assuming you qualify, you can apply online. Aspire estimates the application takes about 10 minutes.

If you’re approved, you’ll need to supply some documentation, such as:

• Your most recent mortgage statement, if applicable
• Proof of identity
• Evidence of homeowners insurance

2. Home valuation

Aspire will review your documentation and, in some cases, will order an in-person, third-party valuation of your home to determine its current value. That value is risk-adjusted down by 15% to determine your actual “starting property value” as referred to in your contract.

For instance, if the third-party appraiser determines your home is worth $500,000, the 15% risk adjustment means your home is valued at $425,000 for the sake of the home equity agreement’s starting property value.

3. Aspire calculates how much you can borrow and how much you’ll owe

You can receive up to 15% of the appraised value of your home, up to a maximum of $250,000. In the scenario from the previous step, the example home’s risk-adjusted value is $425,000. That means you could borrow up to $63,750. This is referred to in your agreement as the initial cash payment.

In your agreement, Aspire will also spell out its share in your property, i.e., the percentage of your home’s future value that you’ll owe when the agreement is terminated. Aspire calculates that share by taking your initial cash payment, expressed as a percentage of your home’s appraised value, and multiplying it by 3.25.

For instance, if you borrow $42,500, 10% of your home’s $425,000 risk-adjusted value, Aspire would multiply 10% by 3.25. That makes Aspire’s share 32.5%. When the agreement ends, you’ll owe Aspire:

• The initial amount you borrowed
• Plus 32.5% of the change in your home’s value from the agreed-upon starting property value

Built-in consumer protections

Aspire offers a couple of protections to limit what you’ll owe at the end of the HEI:

• Cost cap: The Aspire HEI product has a proceeds cap in place to protect homeowners in situations where there is high home price appreciation. This proceeds cap is set at 12% of the funding amount (compounded monthly) if the agreement is terminated in the first three years, and between 16% and 18% after year three.
• Remodeling adjustment: If your home’s value increases because of a qualifying remodeling project, Aspire doesn’t share in the added value of that project. However, you’ll need to thoroughly document the renovation and work with Aspire to receive the adjustment.

4. Receive the cash

You can use this cash however you see fit, including on:

• Home renovations
• Debt consolidation
• Medical bills
• Major expenses, such as weddings, moves, and vacations

Aspire charges a 3% processing fee, which is deducted from the lump sum you receive. You’ll also need to pay for third-party closing costs, including the appraisal (if necessary). In our example, in which you borrow $51,000, you’d actually receive less than that amount after taxes, fees, and closing costs.

5. Repayment

The main appeal of the Aspire HEI is that you don’t have to make monthly payments as you would with a home equity loan, home equity line of credit (HELOC), cash-out refinance, or personal loan. Instead, you don’t owe anything until the agreement ends.

Aspire HEIs can last as long as 15 years, though you can end the investment sooner. Selling your home automatically triggers termination of the agreement.

If your home has appreciated in value significantly since you received your initial cash payment, you may owe Aspire tens of thousands of dollars more than you borrowed.

Who is eligible?

Aspire has no income requirements, making it easier to qualify for a home equity investment than it is to qualify for a home equity loan. However, there are other eligibility requirements you must meet, including much stricter credit score requirements than other HEA companies.

The table below breaks down some of the most important eligibility requirements:

Pros and cons

Pros

• No monthly payments

• 18% max return on Aspire’s share

• Lower fees than competitors

Cons

• Higher credit score requirement than competitors

• Lower max funding amount than competitors

• Higher minimum funding amount than competitors

• Limited to 11 states plus Washington, D.C.

• Complicated share percentage calculations

• High fees over the long term

• Poor customer reviews

Customer reviews

Aspire HEI is only about two years old, and with agreements that last up to 15 years, very few customers have completed the full cycle. That means reviews are limited for now, making it hard to assess overall satisfaction until more homeowners move through the process.

Alternatives

You can see how Aspire stacks up against our three best home equity agreement and investment companies:

Aspire’s funding amounts are more restrictive, its credit requirements are notably higher, and its availability is more limited. Plus, Aspire’s potential share percentage in a home’s future value can be much higher than some of its competitors’.

Aspire vs. Hometap

Hometap is our highest-rated home equity agreement company, with 4.8 out of 5 stars (and positive customer reviews on third-party sites to back it up).

In most ways, Hometap is the better option: easier to qualify, more flexible borrowing amounts, and more widely available. Plus, it earns way more positive reviews. Notably, Aspire has lower fees.

Aspire vs. Unlock

Unlock is another highly rated HEI company, particularly because Unlock allows partial payments during the term to reduce the overwhelming end repayment cost.

Unlock has more lenient credit requirements, a much larger max funding amount, and wider availability. Its share percentage is more straightforward than Aspire’s, but its fees are higher.

Aspire vs. Point

Point is a top-rated HEA company with terms up to 30 years. Point is more widely available than Aspire, has much more flexible funding amounts, and has softer credit requirements.

Point discloses less information publicly than its competitors, but there is a formula to calculate its share percentage and maximum annual return cap. Its fees are higher than Aspire’s.