Nada Home Equity Agreement Review 2026: Costs, Requirements, Pros and Cons

Nada home equity reviews come down to three questions: what its Home Equity Agreement costs, who qualifies and whether the company is legitimate. This review covers Nada Holdings, the Dallas company at nada.co (not NADA car values), with every figure read on Nada’s own pages on October 6, 2026.

What is Nada?

Nada is a Dallas-based financial technology company. Its main product for homeowners is the Home Equity Agreement, or HEA: Nada gives you a lump sum of cash today in exchange for a share of your home’s future value. There are no monthly payments. You settle once, within 10 years, by selling the home, refinancing, paying cash or, if you qualify, starting a new agreement.

Nada describes the product as an equity sharing agreement, not a traditional loan product, and it records a lien on the home, typically a second lien behind your existing mortgage. You keep ownership and the right to live in the home. The same company runs Cityfunds, an investment product that lets investors buy shares tied to home equity in specific cities.

You may see the same kind of product called a home equity investment or a home equity sharing agreement. Our home equity hub covers the other ways to use the equity in your home.

Where is Nada available?

Through the links on this page, Nada’s Home Equity Agreement is available in 12 states:

If your state is not one of the 12, the Nada links here send you to another home equity company that lists your state, or to a HELOC lender where none does. Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma stand out: of the six agreement companies we track, Nada is the only one that lists them.

How does Nada work?

You start by checking your eligibility online, which Nada says has no impact on your credit score. Nada then sends an offer based on your home’s value and equity. It values homes with third-party automated valuation models, and says homeowners may opt to pay for a full appraisal where a more precise figure is needed.

If you accept, you sign the agreement and receive the money as a lump sum. Nada says the funding timeline varies and starts once you have submitted a completed application with all required documents.

During the term you keep living in the home and keep paying your mortgage, taxes and insurance. You may buy back Nada’s share at any time with no prepayment penalty. At the end of the 10 years, Nada lists three ways to settle: refinance into a traditional mortgage, pay in cash (from a sale or from savings), or obtain a new agreement with another 10-year term.

Eligibility requirements

These are the starting points Nada publishes on its eligibility page. Meeting them does not mean you will be approved.

What rules you out today: a foreclosure, short sale or deed in lieu in the last five years; a Chapter 7, 11 or 13 bankruptcy discharged or dismissed in the last 18 months; traditional condos, co-ops, condotels, mobile or manufactured homes and timeshares; and properties zoned for commercial or agricultural use.

Nada does not restrict how you use the cash. It names home improvements, paying off high-interest debt, retirement and starting a business among the common uses.

Nada pricing and fees

You pay nothing out of pocket to start. Nada’s pricing page lists three fees of its own, all deducted from your proceeds at funding, and its FAQ lists the third-party costs that come out at closing as well.

Example: on a $100,000 agreement, Nada’s three fees add up to 4.9%, or $4,900. Add third-party costs at the low and high ends of the ranges above ($1,220 to $2,170) and you would receive roughly $92,930 to $93,880. This is our arithmetic from Nada’s published figures, and your own closing statement will list exact amounts.

How settlement works (the exchange rate)

Nada’s pricing page describes a share of home value model. You receive a percentage of your home’s value in cash, and Nada receives a larger percentage of the home’s value when the agreement ends. The ratio between the two is the exchange rate, which Nada says starts at 1.85. If you access 10% of your home’s value, Nada’s share is 18.5% of whatever the home is worth at payoff. Nada lists a maximum shared equity of 49.99%.

There is a limit on the total. Nada calls it the Annualized Cost Limit: your cost is capped at 19.99% a year, or the maximum your state allows if that is lower. You pay the lesser of Nada’s equity share and the capped amount.

Example: $100,000 on a $1,000,000 home

These figures are Nada’s own 10-year example from its pricing page.

You received $100,000 before fees and the payoff is $273,845, so the agreement costs $173,845 over 10 years in this example. By the same formula, if the home were still worth $1,000,000 at payoff, 18.5% of it would be $185,000. That last figure is our arithmetic, not Nada’s: a flat home value lowers the payoff but does not bring it down to what you received.

A second example on Nada’s FAQ works differently. There, a $500,000 home with a $100,000 investment and a 20% shared appreciation percentage is later worth $650,000, and the payoff is the original $100,000 plus 20% of the $150,000 gain, or $130,000. That is a share of the appreciation, not a share of the whole home value. The pricing page formula, with the 1.85 exchange rate and the 19.99% limit, also appears in the FAQ’s own definitions. Before you sign, ask Nada which formula your agreement uses and check it against your closing documents.

Nada pros and cons

Here is how the terms Nada publishes net out.

Is Nada legit?

Yes. Nada is a real, established company, not a scam. Nada Holdings, Inc. is based in Dallas, Texas. Its Better Business Bureau profile gives a start date of October 15, 2018, shows accreditation since May 27, 2025 and grades the company A+. Legitimate is not the same as right for you, so read the customer feedback below before you decide.

On licensing, Nada’s website states that Nada Loans LLC is a licensed mortgage company, NMLS #1993600, and that this entity currently offers HEAs in the State of Washington. It also lists Nada Realty as a licensed Texas real estate brokerage. Nada says it is a member of the Coalition for Home Equity Partnership and the Mortgage Bankers Association, and that Cityfunds, its product for investors, is SEC-qualified.

The company is still raising money to grow. Its website lists a $300 million capital partnership with a fund of O’Connor Capital Solutions, announced on September 17, 2026, to expand Home Equity Agreement originations.

Nada customer reviews

The five-star reviews we read praise named staff members, clear explanations and quick replies during the application.

Nada complaints

The one-star and two-star Trustpilot reviews from April to September 2026 share a theme: time. Reviewers describe processing that ran for weeks or months, funding dates that passed without money arriving, long gaps in communication and repeated requests for documents, such as 24 months of mortgage payment history. One describes being turned down at the last minute. One reviewer wrote in July 2026 that an application was put on hold over licensing in Georgia, a state that is not among the 12 listed here.

If timing matters to you, ask Nada for a realistic funding date before you rely on the money, and do not plan a mortgage payment or a purchase around it.

The product category has drawn attention. In January 2025 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published a report on home equity contracts that called them expensive compared with other home-secured financing and difficult to understand or compare. That report is about the category, not about Nada.

Nada vs. other home equity agreement companies

Nada is one of several companies that offer this kind of product. Here is how it lines up against two others with a 10-year term, using the figures each company publishes on its own website.

All three run 10 years with no monthly payments. Nada and Unlock share the lowest credit minimum at 500, and their combined fees are the same 4.9%. Unlock lists 26 states to Nada’s 12 and lets you buy out its share in partial payments. Hometap lists a minimum FICO score of 575 and invests in 27 states, and manufactured homes are among the property types it invests in. Nada’s edge is geographic: it is the one to check in Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

Read our Unlock review and our Hometap review for the full terms of each.

More: Best home equity agreement companies

How to apply for a Nada Home Equity Agreement

What if Nada turns you down?

A decline usually traces back to one of the published requirements, and what to do next depends on which one.

Your state. Unlock lists 26 states, Hometap 27 and Point 29 plus Washington, D.C. Each list is different, so check all three.

Your property. Nada excludes traditional condos and manufactured homes. Unlock lists condominiums among the properties it invests in, and Hometap lists both condos and manufactured homes.

Your credit. 500 is also the published minimum at Unlock, Point and Splitero, so a lower score means working on the score first. Our Splitero review covers its terms, and our guide to a home equity loan with bad credit shows what opens up at each score.

Your equity. Paying down your mortgage or waiting for the home to appreciate could get you past 25%. A home equity calculator shows where you stand today.

You would prefer a loan after all. If your score is in the 600s and a monthly payment is manageable, Figure offers a HELOC with a minimum credit score of 600 in most states, for qualifying loans.

Nada review: the bottom line

Nada delivers the core of what it advertises: a lump sum with no monthly payments for up to 10 years, a FICO minimum of 500 and a published limit on the total cost. Its customer ratings are strong, and it serves three states the other agreement companies leave out.

The cost shows up at the end, and it could be far more than the cash you received. Nada’s published terms also vary from page to page, and the complaints we read were about delays. Go in with a plan for how you will settle within 10 years, and get the fees, the share and the cost limit in writing.

Nada FAQ

How we reviewed Nada

This review is the editorial view of smarts.co, built from primary sources. We read Nada‘s home page and its eligibility, pricing, how it works, FAQ and about pages, opened its application page, and read its profiles on Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau, including the low-rated reviews. Figures for Unlock and Hometap come from their own websites.

We did not give Nada a star score of our own. The stars at the top of this page are its customer rating on Trustpilot. In place of a score, here is what we looked at and what we found.

Sources