How to Use the ReadinessIQ Down Payment Assistance Finder

The Down Payment Assistance Finder is a ten-question screening tool that compares your answers against a national library of down payment and closing cost assistance programs — state housing finance agency programs, county and city programs, employer and profession programs, and national programs offered through participating lenders.

It reads the published rules for each program: which counties it serves, the household income limit for your family size, the credit guidance the agency publishes, whether the home has to be your primary residence, whether you must be a first-time buyer, how much assistance is offered, and whether the money is a grant, a forgivable loan, a deferred second mortgage, or a repayable second mortgage.

What it does not do is decide anything. The Finder has no access to your credit report, your tax returns, or the agency's underwriting queue. It reads published rules and tells you where you appear to fit. Every program listed carries a link to the agency that runs it and the date we last verified the information.

Start at the Finder and answer the questions honestly — estimates are fine, and nothing you enter is shared with a lender unless you ask us to.

You will be asked for your state and county, roughly what you earn per year before taxes, how many people live in your household, whether you have owned a home in the last three years, an estimate of your credit score, whether the home will be your primary residence, your line of work, and whether anyone in the household has served in the military. That is all the Finder needs.

• State and county decide which programs can even consider you. Most assistance is local.
• Household income before taxes is what agencies use — not your take-home pay.
• Household size matters because most income limits go up with each additional person.
• First-time buyer status usually means you have not owned a home in the last three years, not that you have never owned one.
• Credit score is an estimate. The Finder uses it to filter programs whose published minimums you clearly cannot meet.
• Occupation and military service unlock teacher, nurse, first responder, tribal, farmworker, and veteran programs.

What each result means

Use the Finder as an educational screening tool at the front of a conversation, not as an eligibility engine. It surfaces the programs worth researching for a borrower and gives you a shared reference to talk through with them.

Nothing the Finder returns is an approval, a pre-qualification, or a commitment to lend. Say that out loud with the borrower and put it in writing when you send results.

• Income limits — the Finder shows the limit that applied to the household size entered. Re-check it against the agency's current chart before you quote it.
• Credit guidance — published agency minimums, not your investor overlays. Your overlays still control.
• Occupancy — nearly every assistance program requires the home to be a primary residence, and many add a minimum occupancy period.
• Program status — active, limited, waitlist, or closed, as of the printed verification date.
• Assistance amount — the published maximum or formula. Actual awards vary by borrower and by funding round.
• Repayment terms — grant, forgivable over a term, deferred until sale or refinance, or amortizing second lien. This changes the borrower's real cost more than the headline amount does.

Assistance is one of the biggest reasons a qualified buyer thinks they cannot buy. Sharing the Finder is a way to open that door without stepping into lending advice.

The safest and most useful thing you can do is hand your client the tool and the state guide, then let a licensed loan officer and the housing agency handle eligibility. Discussing whether a specific buyer qualifies — or steering them toward or away from programs — is lending advice and, depending on how it is framed, can raise fair housing concerns.

• Share the Finder so your client can screen programs privately, at their own pace.
• Share the state guide for loan limits, closing customs, taxes, and the local assistance landscape.
• Help them prepare questions for the lender and the agency rather than answering those questions yourself.
• Avoid discussing eligibility — do not tell a buyer they qualify, do not tell them they do not, and do not estimate their income limit.
• Set expectations on timing — some assistance programs add days to underwriting and require agency sign-off before closing.

If you administer a program listed in this library, everything we publish about it comes from your own public materials, and we would rather be corrected than be wrong.

Each program page shows exactly what we believe about your program and the date we last checked. Review those fields and tell us about anything that is out of date — including programs that have closed, so we can stop sending buyers to them.

• Program information — name, administering agency, program type, and description.
• Assistance amount — the maximum or the formula as published.
• Status — active, limited, waitlist, or closed.
• Income limits — the limits and how they scale with household size.
• Geography — the states, counties, or cities served.
• Official links — the page you want buyers to land on.

Print this and walk any program listing against it. Every item is something a buyer, a loan officer, or an agency can confirm independently.

• ✓Program existsThe program appears on the administering agency's own website today.
• ✓StatusActive, limited, waitlist, or closed matches what the agency publishes.
• ✓AmountThe assistance maximum or formula matches the agency's current materials.
• ✓RepaymentGrant, forgivable, deferred, or repayable is stated correctly, with the term.
• ✓IncomeIncome limits match the agency's current chart for the relevant household size.
• ✓GeographyThe states, counties, or cities served are correct and complete.
• ✓Credit guidancePublished credit minimums are the agency's, not a lender overlay.
• ✓Official URLThe link resolves to a live agency page about this specific program.
• ✓Last VerifiedThe verification date is printed and is within the current review cycle.
• ✓RED explanationRED's explanation cites published material and adds no unverified numbers.

RED teaches from published, verified material on this site. Ask in plain English — here are the four shapes of question that work best.

This library is only as good as the corrections we get. If you are a Housing agency, Program administrator, Loan officer, or Realtor, please tell us about:

• Incorrect information
• A new program we are missing
• A program that has closed
• Updated income or purchase price limits