Choosing a Term Length
The Bottom Line
- Term length matters more than which provider you pick. Pick your ideal term length first — 10-year, 30-year, or mortgage-linked — then shop for the cheapest option within it.
- Decide based on risk, not cost. The real question is how comfortable you are with the possibility of having to sell your home by the end of your term, not which provider has the lowest effective cost.
- Geography may limit your options. Provider state coverage varies, so not every term length may be available depending on where you live.
- Once you've decided on term length, optimize for cost. Compare total cost across the providers that offer your ideal term length, using the cost calculator.
- A longer term trades cost for safety. It reduces the risk of a forced sale, but since your payoff is tied to your home's future value, holding longer usually means owing more in dollar terms if your home appreciates.
See What You Qualify For
Enter your home details to see which providers — and which term lengths — you're eligible for before you read any further.
The Three Term Lengths at a Glance
| Term Length | Providers | How It Works |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed 10-year | Hometap, Unlock | Settles exactly 10 years from funding, regardless of your mortgage |
| Fixed 30-year | Point, Unison | Settles exactly 30 years from funding, regardless of your mortgage |
| Mortgage-linked | Splitero | Runs as long as your primary mortgage does, with a 10-year floor and a 30-year cap |
See 10-Year Terms, 30-Year Terms, and Mortgage-Linked Terms below for the full risk breakdown of each.
Start With What You Actually Qualify For
Before weighing the risk framework below, check which term lengths are realistically available to you. Geography is usually the biggest constraint. Provider state coverage varies a lot, so not every term length may be on the table depending on where you live.
Splitero, the only mortgage-linked provider we track, covers just 14 states. That's by far the smallest footprint of the five, so a mortgage-linked term simply isn't on the table for most of the country. It can narrow further than that: in Kansas, for example, Unison is the only one of the five providers available at all, which decides both your term length and your provider before you get to anything below.
State eligibility changes; confirm your own before assuming a term length is or isn't available to you.
Check your eligibility with the cost calculator →The Core Question: Can You Avoid Being Forced to Sell?
Every form of home-secured debt ends the same way in the worst-case scenario: you could be forced to sell your home to pay back what you owe. A mortgage, a HELOC, a home equity loan, and an HEI/HEA all carry that risk. What differs is how likely that outcome actually is, and why.
How a Mortgage Protects Against This
A mortgage lender has certain checks it performs to try to prevent a situation where you end up having to sell your home. Before approving you, it checks your income, employment, and debt-to-income ratio to confirm you can afford the monthly payments on your own, without needing to sell. Foreclosure is a contingency — it happens only if something changes later that wasn't true when you were approved, like a drop in your income.
Why an HEI/HEA Doesn't
An HEI/HEA provider doesn't check your income or employment as part of its application process. That's an advantage if a traditional lender has turned you down. But it also means nobody has confirmed you have any way to pay other than selling your home. The provider's protection comes from its claim on your home's future value, not from any check on your ability to pay another way. Selling your home to repay isn't a rare backup plan here the way foreclosure is for a mortgage. It's closer to the default outcome unless you arrange something else yourself.
When your term ends, or you decide to exit early, you settle by one of three paths:
The Three Ways to Settle
- Selling the home. Always available to you, assuming you're willing to do it.
- Paying cash. Only works if you actually have that much sitting in savings, investments, or another liquid source when the bill comes due.
- Refinancing. Only works if your income, credit, and the home's loan-to-value support a new loan at that future point — the exact underwriting an HEI/HEA skipped at the start.
Selling your home is the only option guaranteed to be available to you. Paying with cash and refinancing both depend on your financial situation years from now, which is one of the hardest things to predict. That's why the most conservative way to choose a term length is to ask: what is the amount of time I'd genuinely be comfortable being forced to sell within, if the other two options didn't pan out?
10-Year Terms: Hometap and Unlock
Hometap and Unlock are the two providers we track with a fixed 10-year term — the shortest term available, and the one where the risk framework above matters most.
A 10-Year Term Is Reasonable If
- You already plan to sell your home within 10 years
- You've forecast your ability to pay in cash across a range of scenarios and you're confident that you'll have enough
- You're confident in your ability to refinance within 10 years, which depends on your income, credit, and home value holding up
It's a Real Gamble If
- None of the above are true, and you're choosing 10 years because it's cheaper on paper
- You're not comfortable with the possibility of being forced to sell within 10 years
See Hometap's and Unlock's full reviews for how they differ from each other within this term.
30-Year Terms: Point and Unison
Point and Unison both offer a fixed 30-year term — the longest term available, and the safer choice if you're not sure you could sell, pay cash, or refinance within 10 years.
A 30-year term doesn't eliminate the forced-sale risk. It just pushes it out far enough that it rarely matters, since most homeowners sell, move, or refinance well before 30 years for reasons that have nothing to do with an HEI/HEA. The case for a 30-year term isn't that the risk is zero. It's that the risk is low for most people.
See Point's and Unison's full reviews for how they differ from each other within this term.
Mortgage-Linked Terms: Splitero
Splitero is the one provider we track with a mortgage-linked term. Repayment is due when your primary mortgage is scheduled to pay off, subject to a minimum of 10 years and maximum of 30 years.
With Splitero, the key questions are how many years are left on your mortgage and would you be comfortable with the possibility of being forced to sell within that window?
Editor's take: The biggest risk with any HEI or HEA is being forced to sell your home before you're ready, at the end of a fixed term that has nothing to do with your actual financial position. Splitero's structure makes that scenario far less likely. Your term ends right around when your mortgage is paid off, leaving you with lower debt, higher equity, and higher cash flow. That's generally the easiest moment to refinance or otherwise settle up instead of selling.
See Splitero's full review for the details.
See Your Own Numbers
However you're leaning, the fastest way to sanity-check it is with your actual numbers — home value, credit score, and how much you need.
After Choosing Term Length, Optimize for Cost
Once you've chosen your ideal term length, compare the providers that offer it and run your own numbers to find the cheapest option.
The tradeoff: a longer term lowers the risk of a forced early sale, but typically raises cost, since your payoff is a share of your home's value at settlement and values tend to rise over time. That's not guaranteed. In a flat or declining market, what you owe may barely grow, or even shrink, depending on the provider. See each provider's review page for how its cost behaves across scenarios, then run your own numbers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the forced-sale risk unique to an HEI or HEA?
No — it's the shared worst case of any home-secured debt, including a traditional mortgage. What's different is the trigger: a mortgage lender underwrites your ability to pay from income before approving you, so foreclosure is a contingency tied to something going wrong later. An HEI/HEA skips that check entirely, so settling by sale isn't a contingency in the same way — it's closer to the default path unless you arrange another way to pay.
Does my credit score limit what term options are available?
Usually not. Point (30-year), Unlock (10-year), and Splitero (mortgage-linked) all accept credit scores as low as 500, so one option at each term length stays available even at the lower end of the credit spectrum. Geography is a bigger constraint — Splitero, for instance, only covers 14 states.
How does HEI term length affect total cost?
Longer usually costs more, not less. Your payoff is a share of your home's value at the time you settle, and home values tend to rise over time, so a longer term usually means owing more in dollar terms by the time you get there. That's not guaranteed. If your home's value stays flat or falls over your holding period, a longer term may barely increase what you owe. The tradeoff a longer term buys you is less forced-sale risk, not a lower cost. See Optimizing for Cost above.
What happens if I can't pay at the end of the term?
You settle by selling, refinancing, or paying cash. These are the same three paths available with any home-secured debt. If none of those are available when the term ends, some providers may extend the term or take other steps, but in the worst case it can lead to a forced sale, the same ultimate risk you'd face with a mortgage in default. If you're 62 or older, it's also worth knowing a reverse mortgage has no fixed term at all. It's only due when you sell, move out, or pass away. See HEI vs. Reverse Mortgage for the full comparison.