Five practical ways to cover the difference — most buyers only know two.
The home you love costs more than your number. Before you walk away — or worse, overreach — it helps to know that “the gap” is usually one of two very different problems, and each has its own fixes.
A cash gap means you could carry the monthly payment, but you’re short on down payment and closing costs. A payment gap means the monthly cost itself is too high for your income and debts. Look at your Buying Power breakdown and see which input is binding — the fixes below are sorted by which gap they close.
Down-payment assistance is real and bigger than most buyers think: state and city programs offer grants and second loans from a few thousand dollars up to $150k (California’s Dream For All covers up to 20% of the price). Most have income caps, first-time-buyer or first-generation rules, and location requirements — which is exactly the kind of matching House.ai can run against your profile. Grants don’t get repaid; shared-appreciation and deferred seconds do, from future value.
Family gifts are allowed on conventional and FHA loans with a simple gift letter (no repayment expected, documented transfer). A gift toward the down payment keeps your own savings intact as reserves — which also makes your application stronger.
A co-borrower — a partner, parent, or sibling on the loan — blends two incomes into one qualification. It’s the standard fix in high-cost markets where one income can’t carry the payment. Everyone on the loan shares responsibility, so treat it as the serious commitment it is.
If you own, this is almost always the biggest lever: selling converts equity into down payment (shrinking the loan and the payment), and it routinely dwarfs everything above. One decision closes both gaps at once.
Sometimes the honest fix is a smaller version of the same life: one zip code over, one bedroom fewer, or six more months of the levers that grow your number — each 20-point credit bump, paid-off debt, or $10k saved shrinks the gap from the other side.
House.ai can break down exactly how far your dream home is — and stack these fixes into a dated plan.