From a number to keys

Dreamfund is one mechanism, start to finish: know your number, open a fund that is yours, let your people fill it, and let the bank hold it until closing. Five chapters, no mystery.

1. Map your number

Most buyers start with a guess. The Dream Score replaces the guess with a map: in about 4 minutes it surfaces the down payment assistance programs and employer benefits you may qualify for, free, with no credit pull.

That map changes the goal itself. A buyer who qualifies for assistance is not saving toward the sticker number; they are saving toward the gap that remains after every program they can stack.

2. Open your fund

Your home fund is backed by a deposit account opened in your own name at a partner bank. You are the account holder. Dreamfund is the program manager and technology partner that runs everything around it.

That structure is the point: your money is yours from day one, sitting at a bank, with Dreamfund handling the fund, the paperwork, and the progress you share with supporters.

3. People give

Share your fund with family, friends, and your employer. Supporters give toward your goal and leave a note; employers can give through match programs. Every gift lands in your deposit account.

And every gift generates a lender-ready gift letter meeting agency documentation standards. A gift letter records the amount, the giver’s name and relationship to you, and a signed statement that no repayment is expected. Your aunt gives once; the paperwork writes itself.

4. Money waits at the bank

Between gifts and closing, the money does the least exciting and most important thing it can do: it waits, in your account, fully documented. Each dollar carries a recorded giver, date, and source.

That quiet trail is what underwriters ask for when they verify where a down payment came from. Instead of reconstructing months of transfers, you hand your lender a file that already answers the questions.

5. Closing day

When you close, funds release only to a licensed settlement agent handling your purchase. The money never detours through a third party and never turns into walk-away cash.

And if life changes your plan, the money goes home: contributions return to the people who gave them under the fund-disposition policy. Details are in the FAQ.