One investment.
Two outcomes.
You invest in a Tufa Home Fund. Your family member closes on a home with a smaller mortgage and owns it outright.
Your family member owns a home outright.
With a smaller mortgage.
Open an account and name who you are helping.
Add money now, or over time. The money stays yours, in your name. Your family member can see what you’ve made available to help them purchase, so they can plan.
They buy a home the normal way.
Your family member gets a mortgage from a participating lender, qualifying on their own income and credit. The fund gives their lender a letter saying how much it will invest beside the mortgage, so the lender can count on it for their pre-approval.
At closing, your investment goes into the purchase.
The fund invests it next to their mortgage and their down payment. They own the home. The fund holds a share of the home’s future value, with no monthly payment and nothing that grows over time. If the purchase falls through, the money simply stays in your account.
You receive shares in the fund.
At closing, your family member is put on title and you are issued shares in Tufa First Home Fund. Your investment is in the fund, not in your family member’s house.
When the home sells, the fund gets its share.
The fund receives its share when the home sells or when the homeowner chooses to settle early. A refinance to lower the rate leaves the Shared Appreciation Agreement in place. Nothing changes until the home sells or the homeowner settles early, apart from the uncommon cases described on the fund page.
Here is what that looks like on a $500,000 home.
What the fund receives when the home sells.
The fund’s share is set at closing: $75,000 on a $500,000 home is 15 percent. The fund receives its share when the home sells or when the homeowner chooses to settle early. A refinance to lower the rate leaves the Agreement in place. Its share is 15 percent of what the home is worth then.
These figures are illustrative and are not a prediction of returns. The fund’s share is set at closing and varies by purchase. What the fund receives may be higher or lower than the amount invested.
The fund’s position sits behind the mortgage. If the home’s value declines, what is left after the mortgage and selling costs may not cover the fund’s share, and the fund can receive far less, down to nothing. The fund looks only to the home and its proceeds; the homeowner is not personally liable for the fund’s share except in narrow cases of fraud, intentional waste or misapplied insurance proceeds.
They own a home. So what about your shares?
You helped without co-signing, without gifting, and without going on title. Instead, you own fund shares.
You own shares of a fund designed to hold a stake in the value of many homes.
Your family member’s home is one of them. The rest of your investment is spread across the other homes the fund will help families buy.
What you own:
Shares in the First Home Fund. Every share is the same, and each one is a slice of everything the fund holds. You do not own any one house, and no family member’s home is tied to your shares.
What the fund will hold:
A share of the future value of each home in its portfolio, across many homes and markets, each recorded behind a conventional first mortgage. The fund invests only in homes that appraise for at least the purchase price. Its position is set at that price, at closing.
Who the buyers are:
Every home will have a buyer who qualified for a conventional mortgage on their own: documented income, verified assets, a qualifying credit profile. And behind every one of them is a family member who looked at the buyer, the home and the plan, and chose to invest their own money in it.
How the value moves:
Your shares are valued at the fund’s net asset value, which is designed to move with the prices of the homes the fund holds a share in. Home values are updated each quarter using independent sources. There is no rental income; the value is in what the homes are worth each quarter.
How money comes back:
The fund receives its share when a home sells or when the homeowner chooses to settle early. A refinance to lower the rate leaves the Agreement in place. The fund does not reinvest that cash. It funds the repurchase program and may be distributed to shareholders; no distribution is promised.
If you need out early:
The fund is designed to be held. After one year, you can request a repurchase of your shares each quarter, based on the fund’s latest net asset value, subject to the limits on the fund page. The program may be limited, suspended or ended at any time, and the fund may be unable to fill requests in any given quarter.
What it costs:
0.75 percent of net asset value a year, and a one-time transaction cost of up to 1.5 percent of the amount invested, paid when the purchase closes. Together they pay for what it takes to run the fund: the contracts and closing work on each purchase, valuing and servicing each position, and the audits and reporting. No performance fee, no carried interest, and no spread on the investment. No cost at closing and no cost over time. The only costs are ones the homeowner chooses, such as a valuation to settle early, or causes by defaulting.
Who can invest:
Any U.S. investor, once the offering is qualified, subject to Regulation A investment limits.
Full terms, how shares are valued, and the risks are on the fund page.
Built to work with standard mortgages.
None of this requires a special loan or a change to how mortgages work. Your family member borrows from their own lender under standard conforming guidelines, and the first mortgage is unchanged by the fund’s presence behind it. The fund is a Delaware series limited liability company that will file audited annual financial statements and semiannual reports with the SEC. It is built on an existing framework for subordinate home financing, not a workaround invented around the edges of one.
Request access.
Accounts open as the first fund launches. Request early access to be notified.
Tufa is not yet available. This describes how the platform is designed to work.
No offer is being made. This page is for general informational purposes only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Any future offering will be made only through formal offering documents filed with and qualified by the SEC. See full disclosures.