Help your child buy a home.
Not as a gift. As an investment.
You invest in a Tufa Home Fund. The fund uses that capital to invest in your child’s first home, alongside their mortgage and down payment. They 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.
- 31 in 2015, 40 in 2025
Median age of a first-time U.S. homebuyer.
NAR · 2025 Profile
- +93%vs. +56%
Home prices vs. wages since 2015
Home prices have risen faster than wages, so the money needed to buy a home keeps outpacing what buyers earn.
S&P Cotality Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, July 2015 to July 2026; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, median weekly earnings of full-time workers, Q2 2015 to Q2 2026
- 12yr
Years a median-income U.S. household now needs to save to comfortably afford a typical home.
Zillow · 2024
In NAR’s most recent survey, 22 percent of first-time buyers used a gift or loan from relatives or friends toward their down payment. Family help is often what closes that gap.
NAR · July 2024 to June 2025
Why help through a fund.
If a gift is right for your family, give it. Many families can, and it is the simplest way to help.
Your child gets support for their home purchase. You get shares in a Tufa Home Fund that invests in residential real estate.
It works the same for any family member you want to help.
Help your child buy a home.
And hold shares in a residential real estate portfolio, the way institutions do.
Your child owns the home. Your investment is in the fund, not in their house.
What residential real estate has done.
Residential’s worst calendar year since 2000 was −12.0%, in 2008, against −39.2% for the S&P 500, in 2008.
Residential and equities have not moved together: since 2000, their calendar-year returns have a correlation of 0.34, where 1 would mean moving in step.
Residential has tracked or exceeded inflation over long periods: from 2000 to 2025, residential prices rose 214% and consumer prices rose 87%, comparing annual averages.
Individuals have held residential real estate by owning a home or renting one out. Diversified exposure to owner-occupied homes has not been available to them in any form.
Cumulative growth of $100 in U.S. equities and U.S. residential real estate. This is the historical behavior of two asset classes, not a projection of Tufa First Home Fund.
Sources: Robert Shiller (S&P 500 total return; Case-Shiller U.S. national home price index); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U (FRED series CPIAUCSL). Residential is price-only: the rebased Case-Shiller index without imputed rent, the relevant series for an appreciation-based investment. Worst year and correlation are computed from calendar-year (December to December) returns over the selected window. The inflation comparison uses annual averages of Case-Shiller and CPI-U; the 2025 CPI-U average uses the 11 months published, as October 2025 was not published. Case-Shiller is a smoothed index; it understates the volatility an individual owner experiences, and these figures should be read with that in mind. Historical data is not indicative of future returns and is not a projection of the First Home Fund.
A closer look.
A single purchase, worked through: where the capital comes from and what the fund receives at settlement.
A $500,000 home, three sources of capital.
The fund invests 15 percent of the home’s value and receives 15 percent of its value at settlement. 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. At $600,000 that is $90,000. At $400,000 it is $60,000. No monthly payment, and nothing accrues over time.
The buyer owns the home and keeps the rest.
Illustrative. The later sale price is a hypothetical example.
Built to work with standard mortgages.
Buyers qualify independently with their own lender. Investors will hold pro rata interests in a fund designed to hold a diversified portfolio of appreciation-based residential positions.
- Structure
A Regulation A, Tier 2 fund
Investors hold shares in a Delaware series fund that will hold appreciation-based positions in homes. The fund will file audited annual financial statements and semiannual reports with the SEC and will issue annual tax 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, 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 and semiannual reports filed with the SEC, audited annual financial statements, and annual tax reporting.
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 is designed to hold positions in many homes, not just one, so that 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 cover the fund’s Settlement Amount, the fund absorbs the difference. The fund looks only to the home and its proceeds; the homeowner is not personally liable for the Settlement Amount except in narrow cases of fraud, intentional waste or misapplied insurance proceeds. This is written into the Agreement.
For your child, this means the fund cannot push them into bankruptcy if home prices fall. For you as an investor, it means what the fund receives 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 what it receives 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?
Tax treatment depends on your own circumstances. Tufa does not provide tax advice. Please consult your own tax advisor about how an investment in the Fund would affect you.
05What return should I expect?
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. That share is set at closing.
Here’s a concrete example. Say the fund invests 15% of the purchase price on a $500,000 home. Its Settlement Amount is 15% of the home’s value at settlement.
- If the home grows to $650,000, the fund receives $97,500.
- If the home is worth $500,000 at settlement (no change), the fund receives $75,000.
- If the home sells for $450,000, the fund receives $67,500.
In a decline, the amount available behind the first mortgage can be far less.
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 your investment funds a specific purchase, 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 Agreements it enters into or how they 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.