Buyers whose families can help often don’t know it yet.
You usually hear it first.
In NAR’s 2025 Profile, 22 percent of first-time buyers received help from relatives or friends, through a gift or a loan. A gift is money a parent parts with for good. An investment stays theirs, held as shares in the fund. Tufa lets the family invest in Tufa First Home Fund; the fund places an appreciation-based second on the home; the buyer purchases a home higher in price with the same mortgage and the same down payment.
NAR · 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers
Why it matters to your business.
The family conversation happens before the search. A buyer who learns early that help can be an investment, not a gift, starts shopping sooner.
The Amount Advanced is funded at closing, not from the buyer’s accounts: no gift letter, no seasoning, no asking a parent to part with retirement money.
The family invests $75,000; the fund places a $75,000 appreciation-based second; your buyer purchases a home $75,000 higher in price with the same mortgage and the same down payment.
When to raise it.
At the first conversation, before pre-approval.
- 01Ask whether family might help.
- 02If yes, send the buyer the buyer page and the parent the homepage.
- 03The buyer’s lender has to agree to the fund’s investment, so raise it before the lender is chosen, not after.
What it changes about the transaction, and what it doesn’t.
- The family reserves capital before the search. The fund commits to the specific purchase once the home is under contract, and funds it at closing. Closing within 90 days runs from that commitment.
- The buyer’s lender must agree to the fund’s investment.
- The home must be the buyer’s primary residence.
- The buyer must be a first-time homebuyer, as defined in the FAQ.
- The buyer qualifies with their own lender, on their own terms.
- The appraisal.
- Title and closing, which use the standard subordinate instrument.
- No monthly payment on the second, and nothing accrues over time.
- The buyer owns the home outright.
- The fund does not approve, underwrite or guarantee anything.
Where it is available.
This is not open yet. At launch, loans will be originated by a licensed mortgage lender in select states, with additional lenders over time.
What to send.
Everything an agent needs to say is on those two pages.
Tufa does not pay referral fees or compensation of any kind to real estate agents, and agents are not asked to explain or recommend any financing. Your buyer’s lender and Tufa handle the terms.