09/22/2026
If you’re raising kids on one income and everyone keeps telling you to just go find a co-signer, read this.
1. You might not need a co-signer at all. Most people assume they do and never get checked on their own. Find out where you actually stand first, because putting someone else on your loan is a big deal for both of you and it shouldn’t be the starting point.
2. Down payment assistance is real and almost nobody asks about it. California has programs through CalHFA, and some cities and counties run their own. A lot of them are loans you pay back later instead of free money, and most have income limits and rules about which loan you can pair them with. Funding comes and goes too. Ask anyway.
3. You might still count as a first time buyer. The rule most programs use is that you haven’t owned a home in the past three years. There’s also a second rule barely anyone knows about. HUD counts you as a first time buyer if the only home you ever owned was with a former spouse while you were married. So if you bought a house with your ex and lost it in the divorce, you may qualify all over again.
Doing this alone is the hard version. It’s not the version anybody signed up for. That doesn’t mean you’re stuck renting until the kids are grown.
DM me PLAN and we’ll find out what you actually qualify for. It costs nothing to know.
