Early closings were slow, and the education requirements were the main reason. Dream For All required a fairly involved borrower education process: a multi-hour online homebuyer course, a separate course specifically on shared appreciation (since the assistance is a shared-appreciation second lien rather than a standard loan), and a recorded interview to confirm the borrower actually understood the terms. That interview step created an early bottleneck. The first closings tended to be borrowers already deep into a conventional loan who switched the file into CalHFA underwriting once the program opened. Starting fresh took longer because of the coursework and verification steps. If you are researching Dream For All or a similar shared-appreciation program, the durable lessons: - Budget time for the education and verification requirements. - Understand the structure. A shared-appreciation lien means you hand the program a share of your future appreciation instead of paying simple interest. - Line up the first mortgage early, so the assistance layer is the only moving piece at the end. Terms and funding for state assistance programs change from cycle to cycle, so confirm the current rules and whether funding is open before you count on it. We can help you map the steps and timeline for whatever assistance program is live when you buy.