Bilt Rewards Launches New Tool, Offering Points and Easier Experience When Buying a Home

When Bilt Rewards launched, its goal was simple: Let you earn points on your monthly rent payments without administrative fees or fees for using a third-party service — something that hadn’t been possible previously.

However, that led to a natural question: What about homeowners? Shouldn’t they earn points, too — whether that’s from their buying experience or monthly mortgage payments? Well, now they can.

Beyond just earning points, Bilt’s new platform, launched in partnership with eXp Realty, will simplify the complex homebuying experience by showing you homes by monthly payment amount, rather than the price of the home that doesn’t factor in things like closing costs, property taxes, and insurance.

Let’s take a closer look at this new Bilt feature for buying a home and earning points in the process.

Bilt Rewards and eXp Realty Launch Features for Homebuyers

Bilt Rewards has partnered with eXp Realty to help members buy homes without needing to do complex math. Instead of viewing homes just by their selling prices, you can search homes based on your monthly budget, which includes the selling price of the home, its associated mortgage, and other costs associated with owning a home. These include Homeowners Association (HOA) fees, property taxes, insurance, and others. This is all found in Bilt’s new “Buy a Home” tool.

Last month, there were no options for earning points when buying a home. Now, there are 2 — Bilt has just launched this tool and Mesa has launched a credit card for homeowners.

Through this new tool, you can search for homes with filters like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, location, and downpayment amount. From there, you can view results based on the estimated monthly cost. You’ll also see indications about the number of Bilt Rewards points you’ll earn. When buying a home, you can earn 1 point for every $2 of the home’s purchase price, so long as you work with an eXp agent.

Once you click on the home, you’ll see important information like details about the property, the name of the realtor, whether there are HOA fees, and how many points you can earn on the closing price. This details page will also show the upfront cost, the estimated monthly payment (adjusted based on the downpayment amount you select), and even the option to schedule a tour.

If you’re interested in a property, you can save it to your results to easily view it again later.

Another feature that helps homebuyers is an affordability rating. The home’s full cost will be compared to your credit score and income to determine whether the cost is manageable.

Bilt also has a tool for viewing homes in different cities and geographic regions. This helps you see what homes you could afford and how buying power differs by geography.

Bilt says these new tools are part of the brand’s commitment to “supporting renters at every stage of their housing journey. ” For example, you can report rent payments to your credit report to help you build your credit history and potentially improve your credit score. That information can help you qualify for a better interest rate on a mortgage, saving thousands of dollars over the lifetime of your mortgage.

Final Thoughts

Bilt Rewards and eXp Realty have launched a new “Buy a Home” tool to help you search for houses to buy — and it’s based on your all-in monthly cost, rather than just the price of the home. You’ll also earn 1 point for every $2 of the home’s purchase price, which can add up quickly when considering the price of a house.