§ 01 · OPENING
Help your child buy a home.
Not as a gift. As an investment.
You invest in a home appreciation fund. The fund invests in your child’s home purchase. They qualify independently and own the home outright. You hold shares in the fund.
§ 02 · CONTEXT
Earlier matters more
than ever.
Years renting are years paying someone else instead of building equity. Years waiting are years home prices continue rising. Helping a family member buy earlier can give them decades more time to compound.
- 40yr
Median age of first-time U.S. homebuyer in 2025, up from 31 a decade ago.
NAR · 2025 Profile
- $430K
Median first-time-buyer home price. Up 67% since 2015.
Redfin · MoY 2024
- 26%
Younger millennials who received a gift or loan from a friend or relative to help with their down payment.
NAR · 2026 Generational Trends
- 12yr
Years a median-income U.S. household now needs to save to comfortably afford a typical home.
Zillow · 2024
§ 03 · MECHANIC
How it works.
STEP ONE
Families commit capital.
to a Tufa home appreciation fund.
STEP TWO
The fund invests in the home.
alongside a standard first mortgage.
FOR THE BUYER
Owns the home outright.
Qualifies independently.
FOR THE INVESTOR
Holds fund shares.
Diversified residential exposure.
STEP ONE
Families commit capital.
to a Tufa home appreciation fund.
STEP TWO
The fund invests in the home.
alongside a standard first mortgage.
WHAT FOLLOWS
FOR THE BUYER
Owns the home outright.
Qualifies independently.
FOR THE INVESTOR
Holds fund shares.
Diversified residential exposure.
The same investment that supports a loved one’s home purchase can build diversified residential exposure.
§ 04 · THESIS
Diversified residential exposure has long been available to institutions and family offices. A regulated fund structure extends it to families.
§ 05 · ALLOCATION
How a residential allocation has historically shaped portfolio behavior.
Cumulative return of $100 invested at the selected start. Adjust the residential allocation to see how a blended portfolio has historically behaved.
At 10% residential, the blended portfolio’s risk-adjusted return was in line with equities alone.
And a loved one benefits from actually living in and owning the home.
Methodology
Sharpe ratio is annualized excess return over a 2% risk-free rate proxy, divided by annualized volatility. Both are computed from calendar-year returns over the selected window; monthly Case-Shiller observations exhibit appraisal-smoothing that materially understates residential volatility at sub-annual frequency, so annual frequency is used for risk-adjusted statistics. Worst year is the worst full calendar year within the selected window. Blended portfolio assumes monthly rebalancing of the underlying chart series.
Sources: Robert Shiller (S&P 500 total return; Case-Shiller national home price index, price only). Residential is the rebased Case-Shiller index without imputed rent or housing-service flows: this measures price-only residential, which is the relevant series for an appreciation-based investment. Sharpe ratios and volatility are computed from calendar-year returns using a 2% risk-free rate proxy. Blended portfolio assumes monthly rebalancing. Historical data is not indicative of future returns. For illustrative purposes only.
Equities and residential real estate have not historically moved together. A portfolio that holds both can earn higher risk-adjusted returns, because the two asset classes behave differently across time.
§ 06 · INFRASTRUCTURE
Built to work with standard mortgages.
A regulated series fund structure. Buyers qualify independently with their own lender. Investors hold pro rata interests in a diversified portfolio of appreciation-based residential positions.
STRUCTURE
Regulated series fund
Each fund owns appreciation-based residential positions through a regulated Delaware series structure. Investors hold pro rata interests and receive Form 1099 reporting.
BUYER PATH
Standard first mortgage
Buyers qualify independently with their preferred lender under standard conforming guidelines. The fund sits in second position through appreciation-based subordinate financing, with no monthly payment and no DTI impact.
INVESTOR TERMS
Quarterly redemption windows
Net asset value is computed quarterly. Redemption requests are accepted each quarter with 60 days’ notice, subject to a 5% quarterly cap and standard fund-level liquidity terms.
CONDITIONAL FUNDING
Conditional on closing
Capital is held in a segregated account and only called when the designated home purchase closes. If the purchase does not close within 90 days, capital is returned.
ALIGNMENT
Flat-fee structure
A 0.75% annual management fee on net asset value supports administration and ongoing fund operations. No carried interest, no performance fee, no preferred return.
OVERSIGHT
Documented valuation methodology
Net asset value is computed under a documented valuation methodology applied consistently across periods. Investors receive annual financial statements and Form 1099 tax reporting.
§ 07 · QUESTIONS
Common questions.
Answers to the questions parents ask most often before they invest.
SPEAK WITH AN ADVISOR
advisor@tufafunds.comWhen you give a gift, the money is gone. You can’t get it back, you don’t share in the home’s growth, and if your situation changes, there’s nothing to draw on.
With Tufa, you invest in a fund instead of writing a check. The fund helps finance your child’s home purchase. You own shares in the fund. Your child owns the home outright and qualifies for their mortgage on their own.
The money supports the same goal. But it’s an investment you hold, not a transfer you make.
If your child’s home grows in value, the fund earns a share of that growth. If it doesn’t, the fund earns less or breaks even. If the home loses value, the fund can lose money on that position.
The fund holds positions in many homes, not just one, so no single home decides the outcome. But residential real estate as an asset class can decline, and the fund’s returns move with it.
The chart above shows how residential has behaved historically. Past performance doesn’t predict the future.
The fund’s only claim is on the home itself. Nothing else.
If your child sells the home and the proceeds aren’t enough to repay the fund, the fund absorbs the difference. It cannot pursue your child for the shortfall, garnish their wages, or come after their savings. This is written into the loan agreement.
For your child, this means the fund cannot push them into bankruptcy if home prices fall. For you as an investor, it means the fund’s recovery on any single home is capped at what the home is worth.
This is one of the structural choices that makes Tufa work for families. Your child is protected. You’re investing in residential real estate with eyes open about what that means.
You’ll receive a Form 1099 in January each year, the same kind of form you’d get from a brokerage account. Not a K-1.
This is because the fund is taxed as a corporation, so tax reporting happens at the fund level rather than getting passed through to investors. Most people find 1099s simpler.
Your investment in the fund is not a gift to your child for tax purposes, since you’re not giving them anything; you’re holding shares in a fund. Gift tax rules may still apply in some specific situations, so it’s worth running your particular case past your tax advisor.
The fund offers redemptions once per quarter. You give 60 days’ notice, and you can redeem up to your share of a 5% quarterly limit on the fund overall. If more people want to redeem than that limit allows, requests are prorated and the unfilled portion rolls to the next quarter.
The honest version: this is a long-term investment. The fund holds positions in real homes that pay out when those homes are sold, refinanced, or paid off. That makes the fund’s underlying assets illiquid, and quarterly redemptions can be limited or paused if the fund doesn’t have enough cash on hand.
If you might need this money back quickly, this is not the right place for it. If you’re investing on a multi-year horizon, the redemption windows are there when you need them.
The fund earns a fixed share of each home’s value when the home is sold, refinanced, or paid off. That share is set when the loan is made.
Here’s a concrete example. Say the fund provides 15% of the purchase price on a $500,000 home. The fund’s repayment is 15% of whatever the home is worth at exit.
- If the home grows to $650,000, the fund receives $97,500.
- If the home is worth $500,000 at exit (no change), the fund receives $75,000.
- If the home sells for $450,000, the fund receives $67,500 (and absorbs the difference).
Across the whole fund, your return depends on how the portfolio of homes performs on average, how long each one is held, and the fund’s expenses. We can’t tell you what your return will be, and we don’t project one. The chart above shows residential market history for context only.
Two things, both modest, both transparent.
The fund manager earns 0.75% per year on the fund’s assets. This covers running the fund: administration, reporting, valuation, oversight.
When you participate in a specific loan, there’s a one-time transaction cost of up to 1.5% of your investment, with a $1,000 minimum, paid at closing. This covers the legal and operational work of setting up that specific position.
That’s it. No carried interest. No performance fees. No hidden spread. The fund manager’s pay scales with the assets it manages, not with how many loans it makes or how those loans perform. The incentive is to manage the portfolio well over time, not to push volume.
§ 08 · ACCESS
Request access.
Investor accounts open with the launch of the first fund. We’ll be in touch when access is available.