How we verify programs

A fact on a program page comes from the program’s own administrator: its website, its program guide, its rate sheet or another document it publishes. Lenders, news stories and other directories can point us to a program, but we never take a fact from them.

When no official source states something, we say so. The page reads “The program does not state this” instead of guessing, and tells you to ask the administrator.

Each program page answers the same nineteen questions, in the same order: who runs the program, the kind of help, the maximum amount, income and price limits, credit and first-time buyer rules, where it applies, how to apply, and more. Every answer is recorded with the official page or document it came from and the exact passage that states it. You can open that passage under each answer on the page.

We use AI tools to do the reading and drafting, and a person makes every decision that reaches the site.

• Research. An AI tool reads a program’s official sources and drafts its record, with the source and quoted passage for each answer. A draft cannot publish itself.
• Approval. A person decides on every draft: approves it, corrects it or rejects it. Nothing the research tool finds reaches the site without that approval. Every approval creates a new numbered version, shown at the foot of the program page, and earlier versions are kept.
• A second check. After approval, an automated check fetches each cited source again and confirms the quoted passage is still there. A second AI model, separate from the one that did the research, then checks that each answer matches its own quote. This check can only flag a problem. It cannot change a record; a person decides what to do about what it finds.
• Program pages. An AI tool writes the explanation on each program page from the approved record alone, without browsing the web. Automated rules refuse a page that states a figure the record does not have. A person reads, edits and approves every page before it goes live.
• Blog posts. An AI tool drafts each post from official government and housing agency sources. Posts state no dollar amounts, percentages or limits, because those live on the program pages, where they are tied to a source. A person reviews and approves every post before it is published.

Program pages and posts are reviewed by Tyler Thompson, holds real estate licenses in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Programs change their rules, amounts and funding, so a record is checked again:

• at least every six months;
• when the second check finds that a source has changed or no longer supports an answer;
• when a reader reports a mistake.

A fact can still go out of date between checks. That is why every page links its official source, and why you should confirm the details with the administrator or a participating lender before you rely on them.

• Facts verified against the official source: the day a person approved the current version of the program’s record.
• Updated: the last time the record or the page was approved again.
• Published: the day the page first went live.

Funding status says a program is open only when its official source says funds are available. Otherwise it reads as unknown. Programs can run out of funds at any time, so ask the administrator.

When a program closes or we can no longer support its record, we take its page down. It disappears from the site, the map and the program lists at the same moment. We keep the record’s history rather than deleting it.

Every program page has a way to report a mistake. A person reads each report and checks it against the official source before the record changes.

• We do not decide whether you qualify. Only the administrator or a participating lender can.
• We do not publish a fact that its official source does not state.

Our disclaimer says more about how to use what you read here. Questions or corrections go to tyler@3rdventures.com.