Real estate investors who close multiple deals each year often treat origination fees as an unavoidable cost of business, but a new subscription model from homebldr is challenging that assumption. The technology-driven investment financing platform has introduced a product with no direct market equivalent: a financing subscription that eliminates homebldr origination fees entirely for 12 months. For investors closing several deals annually, the financial implications are significant.
Under the traditional deal-by-deal model, an origination fee of 1.3% on a $417,000 loan amounts to about $5,421 per transaction. Over a year, an investor closing six deals with a total loan volume of $2.5 million would pay $32,526 in homebldr origination fees. While these figures are illustrative, they highlight a cost that many investors never calculate on an annual basis. Adam Eldibany, founder of homebldr, notes that the reaction when investors see the annual total is almost always the same: the per-deal number felt fine, but the annual number does not.
The subscription model changes the structure entirely. Rather than paying origination fees on every transaction, subscribers pay a single upfront fee to homebldr and access zero homebldr origination across all eligible deals for the next 12 months, up to a loan volume cap determined by their tier. The homebldr financing subscription currently comes in three tiers. The Core tier is designed for investors closing two to three deals per year, with up to $1 million in loan volume. The Growth tier, which Eldibany describes as the best fit for most subscribers, covers investors closing a transaction roughly every couple of months, with an annual loan volume cap of $2.5 million. The Scale tier is for the most active investors, covering up to $5 million in annual loan volume.
Using the Growth tier as an example, an investor closing six deals totaling $2.5 million would pay $32,526 under the traditional model. Under the subscription, they pay $20,000, a 39% reduction saving roughly $13,000 for the year. Importantly, the break-even point arrives well before the full volume cap is reached. Investors who use as little as 45 to 65 percent of their allotted loan volume are typically already ahead.
Beyond the savings, the subscription model offers structural differences in cash management. Under a traditional model, origination fees are paid in cash at closing, which often requires documented sourcing. The homebldr subscription fee is paid entirely outside of closing and can be paid by credit card, through gifted funds, or even via buy now, pay later providers like Affirm or Klarna. No sourcing requirements or restrictions on where the payment comes from, keeping capital in the investor's hands rather than at the closing table.
Another key advantage is access to better terms through the broker model. Many investors assume working directly with a lender produces better pricing, but Eldibany pushes back, noting that direct lenders offer retail terms. Experienced brokers can frequently access wholesale and preferential pricing from the same capital sources that are not available through the retail channel. Many competitive capital sources operate exclusively through the wholesale channel and do not work directly with investors at all. homebldr's subscribers typically access wholesale and preferential terms from the capital network without any additional fees or yield spread added on, delivering both a lower total cost and better underlying pricing than most investors could access on their own.
