Home equity loans have been an increasingly popular option as real estate values have risen.

But unlike stocks, home equity loans require interest to be paid. In effect, you are doubling down on your home’s value.

Mike from Altos Research points to a fascinating company called Rex & Co that lets you do the opposite: Lock in your home’s gains and sell a slice of ownership in your home. In effect, you sell a share of your house.
As Mike points out, this will be successful if:

• Property prices fall.
• Property prices increase a little bit, but you use the money to pay off expensive mortgage debt.
• You have some other investment opportunity available now, that will appreciate at a greater rate than real estate.

But not work out if property prices rise strongly. That is not really the point. Rather having the option of ‘hedging’ or lowering your financial exposure to your home is a fantastic step forward for consumers.

Rising from the blog dead, I thought I would just say thanks to all the great folks I met at the Inman Connect show last month in New York - especially a lot of the bloggers we have come to know and love. Both to put a face to a name and to chew the proverbial industry chat.

Speaking of faces to names, if you’ve ever wondered what I (Niki Scevak) look or sound like, Sean over at Trulia was kind enough to invite me to an interview.

You can view the video here.