Bonus Homes CEO Kyle Kamrooz watched his father lose everything during the 2008 financial crisis, including their family home, sold to pay off creditors. This decision haunted Kyle because he knew their home would be worth much more in the future. It was then that he recognized a fundamental problem in homeownership: in many cases, the only way to fully access one’s home equity was to completely surrender the asset and thereby any of its future appreciation. This inspired him to envision a new approach by creating a financial instrument that could fully unlock equity without forcing homeowners to sell their single greatest asset—their home.
The Bonus Homes model allows homeowners to unlock 100% of their current home equity, while also enabling them to retain up to 35% of future appreciation. This innovative approach provides liquidity for mobility— whether for career relocation, paying off debt, or investing in a family’s future— while still preserving the homeowner’s wealth-building potential. This unique equity-sharing structure aims to align interests and strengthen communities by keeping single-family homes in the hands of families.
Bonus Homes is building a comprehensive network of partnerships across real estate, technology, and government sectors. The company is working with the U.S. Congress, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to ensure regulatory alignment, while also working with real estate agents and service providers like Truevana, a Black veteran-owned moving company. These partnerships extend the benefits of Bonus Homes’ model to various communities, including active-duty service members who require frequent relocations.
The company’s five-year goal is to partner with 1,000 homeowners, which would inject $100 million in immediate liquidity into Black communities while generating an additional $100 million in appreciation value— approximately $100,000 per household— all without requiring further investment. This innovative model not only creates new pathways for wealth building. It also has the potential to address long-standing financial inequities like appraisal bias by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with homeowners during the eventual sale of their properties. Their model also addresses the traditional investor-ownership dilemma by aligning the interests of all stakeholders— including renters and the broader community—while promoting housing market stability and creating economic resilience.
Valuing Homes in Black Communities
Homes in Black majority neighborhoods are undervalued by 23% on average compared to similar homes in other neighborhoods. Structural innovations that redesign our markets could create a more equitable housing market. To support new ideas, Economic Architecture and Brookings are mapping innovations across the US and invite innovators to step forward and apply to the Valuing Homes in Black Communities Challenge.