Method: where every figure comes from and how the ordering is produced
Every term on this site is copied from the provider's own published pages, with the date it was read, and every cost applies stated assumptions to one common scenario. Results are illustrations, not offers or guaranteed costs.
Every ordering is by one computed number — total cost at a sale in year 10, ascending — and listing position is not for sale.
The scenario
A home worth $500,000 today. $50,000 of cash taken out, which is 10% of the value. The home gains 3% a year. The owner sells in year 3, 5, or 10 and settles everything at the sale. The same scenario is used for every product, whatever its type, so the figures can be set side by side. The calculator lets you change every one of these.
The formula, in full
Every rate is the lowest the provider publishes, so where a page says “as low as” the figure is an illustrative starting scenario. An “up to” fee is modeled at its stated maximum; the actual fee may be lower. APR is used as a proxy for the payment rate when no separate note rate is published. Variable rates are held flat. Eligibility, unpublished charges, taxes and insurance are excluded. These figures are neither quotes nor guaranteed lower bounds. Read the method.
What is added and what is not
Added: the origination or processing fee where the provider publishes a rate or an amount; third-party closing costs where the provider publishes a figure (the low end of a range); annual fees for each year held; every monthly payment the published rate and term imply; and the balance or payoff owed at the sale.
Not added: appraisal or title costs a provider does not price, taxes, insurance, early-payoff charges, rate changes on a variable line, and anything a lender quotes only after you apply. APR may include charges beyond interest, so using it as the payment rate can overstate payments; omitted charges or future rate rises can understate them. These results are not reliable lower bounds.
How a home equity investment is computed
Two structures exist on the published pages, and the site keeps them apart. In the first, the provider takes a fixed share of the home's value at sale, set as a multiple of the percentage taken today. In the second, the owner returns the cash and adds a share of the gain in value, measured from a starting value the provider sets below the appraisal. Where the provider publishes a cap on the payoff as a yearly rate, the payoff is limited to the cash compounded monthly at that rate.
A single worked example cannot establish a reusable HEI share: a provider's cap or other contract terms may determine that example's payoff. We leave a product unranked when the public terms do not define the share needed for this model.
How a loan or line of credit is computed
The lowest published APR is used as a payment-rate proxy and held flat. A line of credit is treated as fully drawn on day one, interest-only through the published draw period, then amortized over the published repayment period. A fixed loan is amortized over the published term. Where a page does not state the draw or repayment period, 10 and 20 years are assumed and the page says so. The balance at the sale is the payoff.
The annualized cost
The yearly rate that turns the cash received (net of upfront fees) into every payment made and the amount owed at the sale. For a loan it is close to the APR; for an investment it expresses the modeled cash flows as a yearly rate.
How companies get on this site
We include every provider of home equity investments, HELOCs, or home equity loans that publishes cost terms on its own website for the United States, plus the largest providers that do not, marked as such. No provider can pay to be included, excluded, or moved. We do not own, operate, or hold a stake in any product listed. We do not accept free accounts, demos, or review units.
Three reasons a cost can be missing
These are not the same thing and this site does not mix them:
- The provider shows its terms only after you apply (7 rows). Its own pages publish no rate, fee, or share. We quote that wording.
- We could not read it (2 rows). The page draws its figures with scripts that did not run when we retrieved it, or refused our connection. That is our limitation and it is labeled as ours, not held against the provider.
- It publishes some terms but not the ones a cost needs (14 rows): a range with no low end, a term with no rate, or a share with no number and no example.
How ties are broken
Total cost at a sale in year 10, ascending. If two products are equal, alphabetically by provider. That is the entire sort key. There is no score, no weighting, no editorial adjustment, and no provider input.
What is not in the sort key
Commission. Whether a provider runs an affiliate program at all. Whether we have applied to it. Brand size, review counts, funding speed, service quality. The disclosure page names every program we are in.
How often this is re-checked
Every figure carries the date it was read. The whole dataset was last refreshed on 2026-08-25. Any figure older than 90 days is automatically labeled “not re-checked since” on every page it appears on — that label is generated, not written by hand.
What we do not do
We do not test these products, and no page here claims otherwise. There are no ratings, no stars, no badges, and no “editor's choice”. We have never been paid for placement and we do not sell listings, reviews, or leads. We do not collect your details and we do not pass anyone's details to a provider. Nothing here is financial advice.
The data itself
The whole dataset is published at data.json under CC BY 4.0, with the source URL and check date attached to every row. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and it will be re-checked and re-dated.
This site is 137 pages, generated from 37 rows of data by one script. 14 of 37 products publish enough to compute with.
Related
Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.