Earn Bilt Points When Purchasing A Home

Unfortunately this isn't the homeowner type of news we were all hoping for from Bilt, the earning points on mortgage payments kind of news. I guess we can still hope it comes at some point though. Instead, today I am here to share the news that you can earn Bilt points when purchasing a home. While this isn't the first program to offer something like this, it is always nice to have an opportunity to earn bonus points on such a big financial commitment. Usually earning points on your home purchase have been based on your mortgage, but this time it relies on who you use as your realtor agent. I wouldn't make a decision like this based solely on the points earning, but if it lines up with your needs then it can be a win-win situation.

Bilt & eXp Realty Partnership Adds Point Earning Option

This new eXp Realty partnership allows Bilt Members to earn Bilt Points when purchasing a home through an eXp Realty agent. This could be in the hundreds of thousands of Bilt Points on a single transaction range. The program awards 1 point for every $2 of a home's purchase price, meaning a $400,000 home purchase could earn up to 200,000 valuable Bilt Points. That is a pretty decent chunk of points earning, especially when considering how much home prices have soared the last two to three years.

Bilt Introduces New Home Searching Tool

To go along with this new partnership Bilt has launched an innovative home search tool that looks to transform how renters approach buying a home. Unlike traditional calculators that require users to input complex mortgage calculations, Bilt's technology shows available homes based on best estimates of an all-in monthly payment. This should make it easier for renters to compare the monthly cost of homeownership to their current rent.

You can find this within your Bilt app under the Pay Rent tab and then slide over to Buy A Home (pictured above).

The tool provides a lot of personalization for users:

• Converting home listing prices into transparent best estimates of all-in monthly payment amounts that include costs like property taxes and insurance
• Factoring in Bilt Members’ actual financial profile to determine indicative rates and mortgage types across FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and NQM lenders
• Allowing Bilt Members to explore various down payment scenarios and to incur added savings by applying Bilt Points towards a down payment
• Showing available homes across different cities based on monthly payment to see how Bilt Members’ buying power differs by geography.

How Does The Process Work?

You will need to get the referral to the eXp agent from within the Bilt app to receive the points. This is how they will track the process, and Bilt will connect you to an eXp agent for the house you were inquiring about. There are a few issues with this. Bilt does not have all the available houses for sale in your area listed, so that could be an issue. You will want to double check your search against other sites like Zillow etc. to make sure there isn't something else better that you could be interested in.

It doesn't appear that you can not do this for listing your house either at this point, since it is focused on the buying side right now. Likely because Bilt is comprised of mainly renters and they wouldn't have a house to list themselves.

What we don't know is if once connected to the agent if you will be able to access the rest of the inventory of homes in your area and still get the referral points. My guess would be yes, and that this is simply a way to get you referred to an eXp agent.

You will also want to vet some other agents and compare the fee structure etc. between several agents. This allows you to see if the points earned would be a net positive, a wash or a negative value proposition overall.

Earn Bilt Points When Purchasing A Home: ToP Thoughts

I wish there were more opportunities to earn Bilt points when purchasing a home, since this is limited to one company of realtors. It is still better than than the nothing we had before though. While I wouldn't allow this to dictate my purchasing process, it is something you need to consider. If you already have worked with a good realtor in the past, then this likely is something you filed as a useless promo to you. On the other hand, if you are starting from scratch then it could be one of the meetings you take with potential realtors. Maybe you will hit it off and end up racking up a few hundred thousand points in the home buying process. If nothing else, the Bilt home search tool may be worth playing around while searching for your next forever house.

Let me know if you find the option to earn Bilt points when purchasing a home exciting over in the ToP Facebook Group.