GROW WITH LIBERTAS & EXP REALTY
By Tim & Julie Harris · October 22, 2026
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Your renter says, “We’d love to buy, but we just don’t have enough saved for a down payment.” And most agents say, “Okay, let me know when you’re ready.” A year later, they’re still renting, or they bought with the agent who knew about the programs.
Here’s the truth: most of those renters aren’t short on income. They’re short on information.
Down payment assistance hits 2,746 programs
Down Payment Resource counted 2,746 homebuyer assistance programs as of July 1, up 67 from the quarter before. About 77% are active and funded. And here’s the big one: 62% of programs serve buyers with incomes over $100,000.
Your buyers are probably assuming they make too much to qualify. Many of them don’t. So stop saying “You probably don’t qualify,” and start saying, “Let’s find out.”
Hispanic households drove all of the growth in homeownership
NAHREP’s 2026 State of Hispanic Wealth Report found that Hispanic households reached a record 10.2 million homeowners in 2025, accounting for all net growth in U.S. homeownership.
This is the fastest-growing group of buyers in the country, and many are first-time buyers who could benefit from assistance programs. Ask every client how they prefer to communicate, and never assume someone doesn’t speak English. Build relationships with lenders who are experienced with nontraditional income and credit. And think about hosting a homebuyer workshop at a community center or a place of worship.
Renovation loans can turn a fixer-upper into a first home
FHA 203(k) and conventional renovation loans let buyers finance the purchase price plus eligible repairs in one loan. Older homes that need work are often the most affordable homes in your market, and many of them are sitting as yet-to-be-sold listings.
Ask your lender whether DPA can be combined with a renovation loan in your state. Then go find the dated, overpriced listings that have been sitting. They might be your buyer’s first home.
What is down payment assistance?
It’s money from a state, a city, a county, a nonprofit or a housing finance agency to help with the down payment and closing costs. It comes in a few forms:
Grants. Free money, no repayment. About 9% of programs.
Forgivable second loans. Forgiven if the buyer stays in the home for a set number of years.
Deferred second loans. No payment until the buyer sells, refinances or pays off the first mortgage.
Repayable second loans. A low-rate second loan with a monthly payment.
Second mortgages make up 56% of all programs, and they’re often deferred or forgivable. The average benefit is about $18,000.
Who qualifies? More people than you think.
62% of programs are open to first-time buyers, and in many programs “first-time” means you haven’t owned a home in the last three years.
62% serve incomes above $100,000, and 11% have no income limit at all.
80% can be used on new construction, 40% on manufactured homes and 35% on two- to four-unit properties.
209 programs target specific groups: educators, veterans, first responders, firefighters, military and surviving spouses, among others.
Know the catches. Many programs have price caps, require homebuyer education, work only with approved lenders and loan types, or require repayment if the buyer moves out early. That’s why your lender partner matters.
Your four-step plan
1. Find the programs in your market. Use Down Payment Resource’s free search tool, your state housing finance agency’s website and your city or county housing department.
2. Build a one-page DPA guide with your lender this week. List the three to five best programs in your area, who qualifies, how much they offer and how to start. Put both your names and faces on it.
3. Call your renters and would-be buyers.
“Hi Jasmine, I just put together a guide to the down payment assistance programs in our area, and some of them are for people earning over $100,000. Can I send it to you? It might be the difference between renting another year and owning.”
4. Host a homebuyer workshop with your lender. Teach the programs, and then fully pre-qualify everyone who attends. Our buyer pre-qualification script and the Buyer Presentation, both part of Premier Coaching, make the follow-up appointment easy.
When your renter says, “We don’t have enough saved”
“That’s what a lot of people tell me, and here’s the good news. There are programs in our area that help with the down payment and closing costs, and some of them don’t have to be paid back. Many are for people who earn more than you’d think. Can I ask, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much would you love to stop paying rent and start building equity? … What would it take to get you to a 10? Let’s get you 15 minutes with my lender to find out exactly what you qualify for.”
The moral of the story: the renter who “can’t afford it” is often just one conversation away from a home. You’re the one who starts that conversation.
Here’s the math
Say you have 100 renters and would-be buyers in your database. If just 5% find out they qualify and buy this year, that’s five more closings. At a $10,000 average commission, that’s $50,000 you would have left on the table. And every one of them becomes a past client for life. That’s another spoke in the wheel of lead generation.
Do sellers see DPA offers as weaker?
Some do, so get ahead of it. Make your offer strong in other ways, with a fully pre-qualified buyer and a clean offer. Have your buyer’s lender call the listing agent and make it clear that this is a strong buyer who is pre-approved, or even loan-committed, and that the program won’t put the closing at risk. And know your program’s timeline, because some take longer to fund.
What about Canada?
Canada has down payment help too, but it works differently. Most of it is federal savings and tax programs, plus some provincial and city programs.
First Home Savings Account (FHSA): buyers can save up to $8,000 a year, $40,000 lifetime per person, tax-free going in and tax-free coming out.
RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan: buyers can withdraw up to $60,000 from their RRSP tax-free for their first home and repay it over 15 years.
First-Time Home Buyers’ Tax Credit: worth up to $1,500.
Provincial and city programs: down payment loans in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick, programs in Calgary, Edmonton, Montréal and Manitoba, and land transfer tax rebates in Ontario, Toronto and BC.
The federal First-Time Home Buyer Incentive ended in March 2024, so don’t promise it to anyone.
The same plan works on both sides of the border. Build a one-page guide with your lender or mortgage broker, and call your renters.
Your challenge this week: Build your DPA one-pager with your lender and call 20 renters or would-be buyers in your database. Count how many say, “I had no idea.”
Want someone in your corner holding you to it? Join Premier Coaching at PremierCoaching.com. Try it for 7 days for just $1.
Tim and Julie Harris are internationally recognized real estate coaches, best-selling authors and the voices behind Real Estate Coaching Radio, the nation’s #1 daily podcast for real estate professionals.
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— Tim & Julie Harris
Founders of Tim & Julie Harris Real Estate Coaching | Publishers of Harris Real Estate Daily | Hosts of PowerHouseTalk | eXp Realty Sponsors at Libertas
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