Read a Client's Equity

Open a candidate and the Equity tab shows what the home is worth, what is secured against it, and how much room that leaves for a HELOC or a reverse mortgage. It is also where an equity report gets previewed and sent.

Where the Property Value Comes From

The value at the top of the tab is pulled automatically, not typed in. Once an address is on file, Houski's valuation model is the only source that fills it in on its own, and owns that figure along with when it was last refreshed. A second Houski lookup enriches the record with the assessment, bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage and year built shown further down, but never touches the value, so a stale assessment never gets mistaken for the current estimate.

If your client has looked at their own equity report and typed in a number they think their home is worth, that shows up as a discrepancy under the value with a "Use Value" button, so you accept it deliberately rather than have it silently change the figure.

Overriding the Value

Click the value to type your own number, an appraisal, a comparable sale, or your own read on the market. Your override always wins over the automated estimate, and everything below it, equity, LTV, HELOC room, reverse mortgage room, recalculates against your number. Clear the override and the tab falls back to the last Houski figure.

Secured Debts and What They Take Out

The first mortgage balance is only part of what stands against the property. A second mortgage, an existing HELOC, or another secured line is added in and shown on its own line, so the total is honest about what needs to come out before the client sees a number. Equity and loan-to-value are computed against that combined total, and a HELOC sitting inside the mortgage balance rather than broken out gets flagged so you can split it before quoting a figure that is really two products at once.

HELOC and Reverse Mortgage Room

The tab works out how much a HELOC could add: the smaller of a standalone 65% loan-to-value limit and an 80% combined limit once the first mortgage and other secured debt are subtracted, with the binding constraint labelled. Any HELOC already on file is subtracted first.

Reverse mortgage eligibility runs off client age, so add a date of birth if the section shows a greyed-out preview instead of a real number. Once eligibility is known, the tab shows the age-based loan-to-value, the gross maximum, and the net proceeds left after any existing secured debt is paid out, plus which providers the client qualifies with.

Adding Their Other Properties

A client's equity is not always just the subject property. Add any other property they own further down the tab and it is looked up the same way, address in, value and equity worked out automatically. Properties tied to another live candidate on the same client show up linked rather than duplicated, so a broker working a rental alongside a primary residence sees the combined equity across everything the client owns.

What to Do Next

• Create an Equity Report to turn this tab's numbers into something the client can read and share.
• Add a Client's Debts and Test a Consolidation once you know how much equity is available to fold debt into.
• Fix a Client's Mortgage Details if the balance, rate, or maturity behind this equity figure looks wrong.
• When a Client Edits Their Own Report explains where that perceived-value discrepancy comes from.