Bilt recently launched a new partnership with eXp Realty which rewards you with bonus Bilt points based on your home’s purchase price. Seeing as it’s earned based on the price of the property you buy rather than having to go through a specific mortgage provider at a higher interest rate, this is an intriguing earning opportunity if you’re planning on buying a new home.
The Deal
- Earn 1 Bilt point for every $2 of your new home’s purchase price when using an eXp Realty agent.
Quick Thoughts
When I first saw that Bilt was going to be offering points when purchasing a home, I was assuming it was going to be something akin to Rocket Mortgage’s partnerships with United and Spirit that reward you when taking out a mortgage with that specific company. While that can work out well if Rocket Mortgage offers a competitive rate and fees, earning bonus miles or points could prove to be costly if you end up with a higher mortgage rate than you could’ve gotten via another bank.
That’s not the case with this Bilt earning opportunity though. Instead, you earn 1 Bilt point for every $2 you spend on a new home provided you use an eXp Realty agent. That means that you can still (presumably) use any mortgage provider you want in order to obtain the lowest possible rate, so this partnership shouldn’t end up costing you more long term.
I’d not heard of eXp Realty before this and, when looking at their website, I was left with more questions than answers as their Help page for home buyers didn’t address some of the things I was curious about. As a result, I reached out to Bilt and they answered the following questions that I had.
Q1: Is there a cap on how many Bilt points someone can earn on a home purchase? e.g. If someone buys a $2 million house, will they earn 1 million Bilt points?
Answer: There’s no cap on how many Bilt points can be earned through this partnership.
Q2: From what I can tell, most eXp Realty agents work remotely, so they won’t be able to show a house/apartment to a homebuyer in person. Is that indeed the case? If so, would buyers be reliant on selling agents showing them properties?
Answer: eXp agents are nationwide and will show homes in person. They have over 70k agents. Members should definitely connect with an agent in person and use them when negotiating a purchase.
Q3: Is there a certain point in the research process where a potential buyer will have to sign a buyer’s agent agreement with eXp Realty? If so, at what stage is that?
Answer: Yes, since the latest NAR settlement, every agent that represents a buyer is required to ask for a contract to be signed. It has become fairly typical to ask for that to be signed prior to the first tour.
(Side note: if you’re wondering why I’d asked this question and what the NAR settlement mentioned in the answer relates to, you can read more about it here (this is a gift link, so you don’t need an NYT subscription to read it.))
Q4: If the agent does work remotely and the buyer finds that that support is inadequate for their needs, do they have any recourse to choose a non-eXp agent in the event that they’ve signed a buyer’s agent agreement with an eXp agent? (n.b. This ended up being somewhat moot due to the answer from Q2)
Answer: Yes, if they need to switch agents, they can ask their agent to have eXp assign someone else, or contact our support team.
Q5: Does eXp Realty have a set fee for their services, or are buyer’s fees negotiated directly with the agent?
Answer: No set fee. What we’ve been hearing is that buyer’s agents are still getting between 2-3% commissions in almost every market. If buyers don’t agree to that, many agents will just walk away. Our agents aren’t required to set their commission at a certain point, it is up to their standard practice.
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Based on those answers, this looks like it could be a great way to rack up Bilt points provided you’re happy with the eXp agent that gets assigned to you. It shouldn’t cost you more to earn the Bilt points provided the buyer’s agent fee percentage you negotiate is the same that you’d have paid to a different agent.
It’s also one of the easiest ways to earn Bilt status. As a reminder, here’s how many points you need to earn to obtain Bilt status:
- Silver = 50,000 points
- Gold = 125,000 points
- Platinum = 200,000 points
That means that a home purchase of $100,000, $250,000 or $400,000 will earn you Silver, Gold or Platinum status respectively. Seeing as Bilt transfer bonuses have, for the most part, been tiered based on your status level, that could get you even more value from the points you earn from your home purchase.
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