Unison/First Rex deals (down payment help for appreciation)

[Tiffany Shan]

Came across an LA Times article about this company and thought their approach was interesting and wanted to share (you can Google "Unison LA Times" if you're curious). The summary is:

-They've been around for 12 years, have $27m in assets (so this is definitely still in experimental stages)

-They used to have a refi alternative but now have a product where they double your down payment in exchange for money back + X% of the gain in home value

-The specific example given was doubling a 10% downpayment on a $650K home in exchange for the $65K back and 35% of the gains (but you can take up to 30 years to sell the house)

I've come across several startups offering deals like this and I'm curious what more experienced SFR investors think.

From the investor perspective: In some ways it's an appealing model because if I were to hypothetically give someone this deal myself, I could speculate on appreciation without going through the trouble of running a rental... but of course, no cash flow, and who knows when they will sell.