Family-Help Lending Hub
Mortgages for Families Helping Family
Parents helping adult children buy their first home. Adult children buying housing for aging parents. Grandparents gifting toward grandkids' down payments. Multi-generational households. We specialize in the lending structures that make these arrangements work, and the documentation that keeps everything clean at closing.
Where to start
The right structure depends on who occupies the property, who is on the loan, and what role the family wants to play. The cards below cover the specific paths we use most often. If you are not sure which fits, email us with a few lines of context and we will point you to the right one.
Family-Help Lending Paths
Family Opportunity Mortgage
Fannie Mae program that lets a parent buy a home for an aging parent or a disabled adult child and treat it as a primary residence on pricing and down payment.
Kiddie Condo Loan
FHA non-occupant co-borrower: parent on the loan, college-student child as the occupant. Primary-residence pricing, 3.5% down minimum.
Parent Co-Signer Mortgage
The full menu of co-borrower options across FHA, conventional, and Family Opportunity, with notes on tax and how each affects the parent.
Gift Funds for Down Payment
Per-program rules on gifts (FHA, VA, conventional, USDA, jumbo), the gift letter, donor sourcing, and 2026 gift tax basics.
College Property Purchase
Buying a home or condo near campus for a student: kiddie condo, investment property, or buying in the child's name with gift funds.
Trust / LLC Vesting
Closing in the name of a revocable trust or a single-member LLC. What lenders allow, the documentation, and the conditions to plan for at closing.
Common Family-Help Scenarios
Parents buying for a college student
Two clean paths. The kiddie condo (FHA non-occupant co-borrower) puts the parent on the loan and the student in the home, with FHA primary pricing and 3.5% down. Or the parents buy as an investment property in their own name, with higher down payment and rate but cleaner ownership.
Adult child buying for an aging parent
The Fannie Mae Family Opportunity Mortgage is built for this. The adult child buys a home for the parent, gets primary-residence pricing and down payment, and avoids the investment property rate premium. The parent occupies. Specific documentation of the parent's inability to qualify alone is required.
Parents gifting the down payment
When the child can qualify on income but lacks down payment, gift funds are the simplest path. The parent signs a gift letter, sources the funds, and wires the money. The child is the sole borrower on the loan. Annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per donor per donee in 2026 (married couples can give $38,000 jointly).
Grandparents helping grandkids
Grandparents can gift down payment funds the same way parents can. Larger transfers are sometimes done through trusts. For a property bought in a grandparent's name and rented to a grandchild, investment property pricing applies. Family Opportunity does not extend to a healthy adult grandchild.
Multi-generational living
When multiple generations plan to live in the same home, conventional HomeReady, FHA, and standard conventional all allow boarder income or ADU rental income in specific cases. The structure depends on whether it is one property with multiple generations or two adjacent properties.
Tax, Gift, and Estate Notes
Family-help arrangements quickly run into gift tax, estate planning, and basis questions, especially for larger transfers and for properties that may eventually change hands within the family. The mortgage piece is one part of a larger picture.
For any transfer above the annual gift exclusion, or any structure involving a trust or LLC, work with a CPA and an estate planning attorney alongside the mortgage process. We coordinate happily with both. Not tax or legal advice. Consult your own CPA and attorney for specific scenarios.
Find the right family-help structure
Send us a quick description: who is buying, who will occupy, who is on the loan, and where the money is coming from. We will respond with the cleanest path and price each option.
Eligibility, rates, and program guidelines vary by lender and are subject to change. This page is general educational information and is not a commitment to lend or an offer of credit. Tax and estate strategy implications should be discussed with your own financial, tax, and legal advisors. Equal Housing Opportunity.