Heavy skepticism. If a program genuinely handed buyers $218,000, loan officers would advertise it everywhere instead of saving it for one event. Legitimate grants and down payment assistance programs do exist, and they vary a lot by area. The real ones tend to run in the low tens of thousands, and the more generous ones get phased out fast once the funding runs dry. We've watched assistance programs in the $50,000 range disappear after a short window. So the money is real in general; a six-figure headline is what fails the smell test. Before you count on any figure you hear at a fair or in an ad: - Get the program's actual guidelines in writing. - Confirm current funding and eligibility, since both change quickly. - Run the program against your own file, because qualifying rules often exclude more buyers than the headline suggests. If you want a specific assistance program pressure-tested, whether it's real, whether it's funded, and whether you'd actually qualify, that's a quick job for the free Roadmap conversation.