eXp Realty press release and HousingWire, both 8 October 2026.
## What eXp announced on 8 October A pay-at-closing preparation loan is a short loan taken out by the owner of a home that is about to go on sale. It pays for the work that makes a listing presentable, and nothing is repaid month by month: the balance is settled in one payment when the sale closes. eXp's release names staging, painting, flooring, landscaping and repairs as examples of what the money can cover. It describes the funds as unsecured and says the client may choose any contractor, stager, retailer or service provider. Repayment, the release says, comes from the closing proceeds when the home sells, and the seller repays only what was spent, plus a one-time fee and interest at what the company calls low fixed rates. The rest of the announcement is a set of claims by the company about how the application works. According to the release, a seller applies through an online portal reserved for eXp clients, the application takes five minutes and has no impact on a credit score, and funds can be drawn the same day they are approved. The release says the programme is available now to eXp agents and their clients across the United States. Inman's report from the conference adds detail given on stage by Leo Pareja, the chief executive of eXp Realty. He described the credit check as a soft enquiry, said applicants still have to pass a credit screening, and said prevailing rates of capital apply. Inman also reported that the funding is not recorded on the deed of the property, and that Mr Pareja mentioned packing, movers and kerb appeal among the uses. ## Why the company says it launched now The brokerage presented the product against the background of a slower market. Mr Pareja told HousingWire that properties are going to take longer to sell, and that a home needing work has to compete with the other homes for sale around it. The release supports the case for preparation spending with figures it takes from the National Association of Realtors' 2025 Profile of Home Staging: nearly half of sellers' agents said staging reduced a home's time on the market, and nearly three in ten attributed an increase of 1% to 10% in offer value to it. Those are survey answers from agents about staging, as cited by the company. They are not a measure of what a seller gains from this loan, and the release's own footnotes say results may vary. ## The lender is Notable, not the brokerage eXp does not make the loans. Its release calls Notable the programme's financing partner and says the loans are made by one of Notable's affiliated lenders, Notable Finance or Quorum Federal Credit Union, subject to credit approval and to the terms of the loan agreement. A seller who uses the programme therefore deals with two parties: the brokerage that lists the home and the lender that advances the money. The release says Notable has issued more than US$1 billion of home preparation finance and facilitated more than 40,000 home sales. Those are the company's own figures. Neither the release, HousingWire nor Inman publishes the fee or the interest rate for eXp Ready, and none gives eligibility criteria beyond credit approval. The lender's own terms of service, marked as last updated in January 2024, do not give them either: they say the company offers interest rates on unsecured consumer loans that depend on the loan programme, and that loan term options may vary with factors including the product applied for. One difference between the two companies' documents is visible. eXp's release says the programme is available to its clients across the United States, while the footer of Notable's terms page carries the notice that its loans are not available in all states. ## If the home does not sell within 12 months Nothing being due until closing describes the usual case. The footnotes to eXp's release set out three events that make the loan funds, the interest and the fees payable, whichever happens soonest: the sale of the home, twelve months after the loan is originated, or what the text calls other acceleration events as provided in the loan agreement. The lender's terms page uses the same wording. So the twelve-month point is a due date, not a period in which the home must sell. The release, the lender's terms of service, HousingWire and Inman say nothing about what follows that date if the home is still unsold, and none of them lists the acceleration events. Those sit in the loan agreement, which is not public, and the lender's terms say that where they conflict with a signed loan agreement, the agreement prevails. Two further points come from the lender's terms. The loans are described as unsecured consumer loans, which means the debt is the borrower's own and is not tied to the property. And a person who uses the service gives Notable permission to obtain a credit report when it reviews an application, while the company may report information about the loan, such as on-time, late and missed payments, to credit reporting agencies. ## How two other brokerages have set out theirs eXp is not the first large brokerage to put preparation money in front of sellers, and it is not the first to work with this lender. The Compass Concierge page, as published on Compass's site on 11 October 2026, says its Concierge Capital loans are provided by Notable Finance and that Compass is not a lender. It lists the events that end the deferral: the home sells, the seller ends the listing agreement with Compass, or 12 months pass from the Concierge start date. The loan disclosure on the same page adds two more, Compass ending the listing agreement or the lender suspending the loan under the loan agreement. That page gives no amounts. It says fees or interest may apply depending on the seller's state of residence, and that programme terms may vary by market. It also tells readers that Compass has business relationships with the providers involved, that a referral may bring the referring company a financial or other benefit, and that a client is not required to use the Concierge programme to obtain brokerage services from Compass. The fullest account of figures in the press is two years old. On 25 September 2024 the Boston Globe's property pages reported that Compass Concierge then advanced up to US$25,000 in most states, with a higher limit in California, for a flat fee of US$500 or US$750 depending on the market, or interest of 5.99%. The same article described Coldwell Banker's RealVitalize as a different model: the seller had to use a contractor from the home services marketplace Angi, there were no fees or interest, and maximum renovation costs were typically US$20,000 to US$50,000. Repayment fell due at the earliest of closing, the listing no longer being in effect, or 12 months after the first job was completed, and a seller whose proceeds did not cover the costs had 15 days after closing to pay the balance.| Term | eXp Ready (October 2026) | Compass Concierge (October 2026) | Coldwell Banker RealVitalize (2024 terms) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who funds it | Notable Finance or Quorum Federal Credit Union | Notable Finance | Work done by Angi contractors |
| Published limit | US$50,000 | Not given on the page | Typically US$20,000 to US$50,000 |
| Charge | One-time fee plus fixed interest, amounts not given | Fees or interest, depending on the state | No fees or interest |
| Falls due | Sale, 12 months, or acceleration under the loan agreement | Sale, end of the listing agreement, 12 months, or suspension by the lender | Closing, end of the listing, or 12 months after the first job |
eXp Realty release, 8 October 2026; Compass programme page, 11 October 2026; Boston Globe, 25 September 2024, for RealVitalize, whose terms may have changed since.
Under 12 CFR 1024.15(b), such an arrangement is permitted on three conditions. The person making the referral gives a written disclosure on a separate piece of paper, generally no later than the referral, explaining the ownership or financial interest and estimating the charge or range of charges. That person may not require the use of a particular provider, although a lender may require payment for an attorney, credit reporting agency or appraiser it chooses to protect its own interest. And, apart from payments the regulation allows elsewhere, the only thing of value received is a return on an ownership interest or franchise relationship, which excludes payments that vary with the number of referrals.