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.
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
Why help through a fund.
The capital is gone the day it is given. The parent gives up any share of the home’s appreciation, holds no liquidity if their own circumstances change, and faces fairness questions across more than one child.
The parent gives nothing away. The capital stays theirs, as an investment rather than a transfer. They hold fund shares with diversified residential exposure, can balance support across more than one child, and keep their own retirement intact.
Diversified residential exposure has long been available to institutions and family offices. A regulated fund structure extends it to families.
How a residential allocation has historically shaped portfolio behavior.
Cumulative growth of $100. Adjust the residential allocation to see how a blended portfolio behaves. This is the historical behavior of an asset class, not a projection of a Tufa fund.
A closer look.
A single purchase, worked through: where the capital comes from and how the fund is repaid.
A $500,000 home, three sources of capital.
The fund invests 15 percent of the home’s value, and is repaid that same 15 percent at sale, refinance, or payoff. If the home appreciates, the repayment grows with it. No monthly payment, no interest.
The fund is repaid $90,000 in total: its original $75,000 plus its $15,000 share of the gain. The buyer owns the home and keeps the rest of its value, including the larger share of the appreciation.
Illustrative. The later sale price is a hypothetical example.
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.
- 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.
It is built by a team that has funded over $2 billion in mortgages.
Common questions.
Answers to the questions parents ask most often before they invest.
01How is this different from gifting money?
When 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.
02What happens if the home doesn’t appreciate, or loses value?
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.
03What protections exist for the homebuyer if home prices fall?
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 limited to what remains after the first mortgage and selling costs. At a low enough sale price, that may not cover the fund’s share, and recovery on that home can approach zero.
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.
04How will I be taxed on this investment?
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.
05What return should I expect?
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.
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. No return can be stated in advance, and the fund does not project one. The chart above shows residential market history for context only.
06What does the fund manager charge?
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.
Reserve your family’s place.
Commitments open as the first fund launches. Reserve a place to be notified when it does.
Commitments open in limited cohorts as each fund’s capacity allows. Reserve your place to be included as space opens.