When a homeowner applies for financing through Hearth, one application goes out to Hearth's full network of 18-plus lending partners at once, and every lender that wants the loan sends back a prequalified offer. Hearth is not a lender; it is a marketplace. Because each lender has a different underwriting box, a homeowner who would be declined by one lender often gets approved by another, which is why Hearth advertises loans from $1,000 to $250,000 and works with FICO scores as low as 550. The prequalification uses a soft credit pull, so checking options costs the homeowner nothing.
Key takeaways
- Hearth routes one homeowner application to 18+ lending partners simultaneously; Hearth itself never issues the loan.
- As of July 2026, Hearth's site lists loan amounts from $1,000 to $250,000, rates starting at 7.99% APR, and personal loan terms of 2 to 12 years.
- Prequalification is a soft credit pull that does not affect the homeowner's score; a hard pull only happens after they accept a specific offer.
- Hearth charges contractors a flat annual subscription with $0 dealer fees, unlike GreenSky, where the contractor pays a fee on every funded loan.
- Hearth does not publish an approval-rate percentage. Ignore articles quoting "70 to 85 percent"; the verifiable claim is the 550 FICO floor and the multi-lender spread.
Hearth's lender network at a glance
Hearth's lender network is a personal-loan marketplace built for home improvement projects, and its current published terms come straight from gethearth.com as of July 2026. The numbers that matter to a contractor pitching financing at the kitchen table:
| Network feature | Current figure (per Hearth's site, July 2026) |
|---|---|
| Lending partners | 18+ |
| Loan amounts | $1,000 to $250,000 |
| Rates | As low as 7.99% APR (credit dependent) |
| Personal loan terms | 2 to 12 years |
| 0% intro APR card options | 6 to 18 month intro periods |
| Minimum FICO | Scores as low as 550 considered |
| Credit check at prequal | Soft pull only, no score impact |
| Funding speed | As little as 24 hours after acceptance |
Hearth also reports 30,000+ professionals on the platform and more than $700 million in project financing processed. The homeowner-facing loan terms above are what your customer sees; what you pay as the contractor is a separate flat subscription, covered in our full Hearth cost breakdown.
How does one application reach 18-plus lenders?
One Hearth application reaches every lender in the network because Hearth broadcasts the prequalification form to all of its partners in a single request rather than routing it to lenders one at a time. Each lender scores the applicant against its own underwriting criteria and returns an offer or a pass. The homeowner then sees the offers that came back, with loan amount, term length, estimated monthly payment, and APR side by side.
Some financing platforms use a waterfall instead: lender one gets the file, and only if it declines does lender two see it. That is slower, and the homeowner watches a "checking more options" spinner that quietly signals a rejection just happened. With the simultaneous model, the options land together in one sitting. Our guide to using Hearth during an in-home estimate walks through that moment step by step.
Why does the multi-lender model approve more homeowners?
The multi-lender model approves more homeowners because 18+ different underwriting boxes catch applicants that any single box would miss. One partner may want a 680 FICO and a clean debt-to-income ratio. Another specializes in near-prime borrowers and will price a 570 score at a higher APR instead of declining it. When a homeowner with a 572 FICO applies, the prime lender passes and the near-prime lender makes an offer, so the job survives.
Hearth backs this up with a concrete, verifiable floor: its site states the network works with FICO scores as low as 550. What Hearth does not publish is an overall approval percentage. Several older articles (including an earlier version of this one) repeated a "70 to 85 percent approval rate," but that figure does not appear anywhere on Hearth's current site, so treat it as unverified. The honest version of the claim: more underwriting boxes means more marginal applicants get at least one offer, and the 550 floor reaches deeper into the credit spectrum than most single-lender programs. For where the score cutoffs actually bite, see our breakdown of FICO scores and Hearth's 550 minimum.
Does prequalifying hurt the homeowner's credit?
Prequalifying through Hearth does not hurt the homeowner's credit, because the initial application uses a soft inquiry; Hearth's loans page states plainly that prequalification "does not affect your credit score." A hard pull happens only after the homeowner picks a specific offer and moves to finalize it with that lender.
That two-step design removes the biggest objection to applying in front of a contractor: fear of dinging a credit score just to see numbers. The homeowner can view real offers with zero credit-score risk, then decide. If your customers ask what happens to their score after they accept, our guide on how contractor financing affects homeowner credit gives you the talk track.
How is this different from GreenSky's model?
GreenSky runs a bank-sponsored loan program rather than a marketplace: loans in the GreenSky consumer program are issued by Synovus Bank, and the contractor pays a dealer fee on each funded loan, a structure NerdWallet's GreenSky review describes in detail. The homeowner is applying to one program with one credit box, not shopping 18+ lenders, and the contractor's cost scales with every job financed.
Hearth flips both parts. The homeowner's application shops multiple lenders, and the contractor pays a flat annual subscription with $0 dealer fees, a claim Hearth repeats on its pricing page. On a $30,000 job, a typical 5 to 10 percent dealer fee is $1,500 to $3,000 out of your margin; the flat-fee math is the whole argument, and we run it in dealer fees: how much are you leaving on the table and the Hearth vs GreenSky comparison.
What does Hearth cost the contractor?
Hearth's contractor cost is an annual subscription, not a per-loan fee, and its own pricing page confirms the $0 dealer fee model while leaving exact prices off the public page. Third-party software directories and reviews (Software Finder, Loanfolk) list the 2026 tiers at roughly $1,499 per year for Essentials, $1,799 for Pro, and $4,999 for Elite, plus a one-time $99 setup fee, so budget in that range and confirm current numbers on a demo call. The break-even question, whether your financed volume justifies the subscription, is the subject of our honest assessment for small contractors, and the tier choice itself is covered in Hearth plan comparisons.
What happens when no lender approves?
When no lender in Hearth's network approves an applicant, the homeowner simply sees no offers, and the cause is usually a FICO below the 550 floor, heavy existing debt, or income that cannot support the requested amount. The job is not automatically dead. Practical fallbacks:
- Add a co-applicant (spouse, partner, family member) with stronger credit and reapply.
- Requote a smaller project scope that needs a smaller loan.
- Point the homeowner to their own bank or credit union for a personal loan or HELOC with different criteria; our comparison of contractor financing vs personal loans covers that conversation.
- Offer an in-house payment plan if the job size and your cash flow allow it.
How we put this together
We pulled every number in this post from Hearth's own pages (the customer financing, pricing, and loans pages at gethearth.com) in July 2026, cross-checked the GreenSky structure against NerdWallet's review and American Banker's Synovus coverage, and took subscription price points from third-party directories since Hearth does not publish them. Where a figure could not be verified, including the approval-rate percentage in the earlier version of this article, we removed it or flagged it as unverified.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hearth a lender?
No, Hearth is not a lender; it is a marketplace that connects homeowners to its network of 18+ lending partners, and the winning lender issues and services the loan. Hearth's role is the single application, the offer comparison, and the contractor-side tools.
Which lenders are in Hearth's network?
Hearth does not publish the full roster on its site, though third-party reviews such as Loanfolk name partners including Prosper, Upstart, SoFi, and BHG Money. The mix can change over time, which is one reason offers vary from month to month.
What credit score does a homeowner need for Hearth?
Hearth states its network works with FICO scores as low as 550, though applicants at the low end should expect higher APRs and smaller approved amounts. Prime borrowers see the advertised floor rates, which start at 7.99% APR as of July 2026.
How fast does the homeowner get the money?
Funds can arrive in as little as 24 hours after the homeowner accepts an offer and completes verification, per Hearth's site. Most personal loans in the network disburse directly to the homeowner, who then pays you like a cash customer.
Does the homeowner pay dealer fees hidden in the price?
No, Hearth's model has no dealer fees on either side: the contractor pays a flat annual subscription and the homeowner pays only the loan's interest and any lender fees disclosed in the offer. That is different from dealer-fee programs, where the contractor's per-loan fee often gets built into the bid price.
Are the offers homeowners see final loan terms?
No, prequalified offers are estimates based on the soft pull, and final terms are set after the hard credit check when the homeowner accepts a specific lender's offer. Rates and amounts can shift slightly at that step, so tell homeowners to read the final disclosure; our guide to Hearth interest rates explains what they will actually pay.
