Amazon, the U.S.-based e-commerce giant, has reportedly inked a deal with struggling mortgage lender, Better.com to provide better perks to employees.

For the unversed, Better.com is introducing Equity Unlocker, a product that enables staff members to use their vested equity as security for a down payment on a home.

The technology will be tested out by Amazon employees initially in Florida, Washington State, and New York. As per Better.com, the system's unique feature is that employees will be able to fund their homes without outright selling their shares by merely pledging the vested equity.

As per Better.com, even ex-Amazon workers who have vested stock can use the platform, and there are many as a result of the company-wide layoffs Amazon underwent. The financing tool is also available to the current and former employees for secondary holiday homes or investment homes. According to Better's website, the closing costs when a loan is obtained ranges from 2% to 5% of the loan. Nevertheless, there is a catch.

According to a recent WSJ report, Better.com will set a higher rate on the mortgage loans of staff members' vested stock, between 0.25 and 2.5 percentage points more than the market rate, based on how the payment plan is structured—to safeguard itself from an ongoing dip in Amazon's stock price.

Even while this new service from Better is particularly targeted towards the home-buying stage, the firm claims that the program's guiding principle is to give assistance to the "whole employee."

It's a unique but unexpected partnership.

In fact, Better.com has used Amazon Web Services since 2015, and the software powers the entire loan generation system. However, it has experienced its share of difficulties that have raised questions about its future.

The way the corporation carried out many rounds of massive layoffs, which also led to a management exodus, significantly damaged the firm's reputation.

Better.com intends to make Equity Unlocker accessible nationally to staff members of both public and private enterprises, with Amazon possibly serving as its test dummy.

Source credit: https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/28/amazon-is-letting-employees-use-their-stock-to-finance-home-purchases-and-even-second-homes/