- What This Cheat Sheet Covers (and What It Does Not)
- The Four-Course Map at a Glance
- HD410: Home Ownership Finance Facts
- HD420: Rental Housing Development Finance Facts
- HD423 and HD435: Spreadsheets and Deal Structuring
- Scoring, Format, and Unknowns
- Tuition, Enrollment, and Sequencing
- Renewal and Recertification Quick Reference
- Sequencing Your Prep Around the Four Courses
- Frequently Asked Questions
- HDFP is a four-course pathway from Grow America (formerly NDC): HD410, HD420, HD423 and HD435, each with its own examination.
- Every course examination requires at least 70%, and all four courses plus all four exams must be completed.
- The 20 domain lines are published curriculum headings across the four courses, not 20 official weighted exam domains.
- Published program tuition runs USD $7,250-$7,400; HD423 and HD435 cohorts require HD420 completion first.
What This Cheat Sheet Covers (and What It Does Not)
This page is a compressed reference for the Housing Development Finance Professional (HDFP) certification issued by Grow America, the organization formerly known as the National Development Council (NDC). It pulls together the facts candidates most often need to keep straight: how the pathway is built, what each course teaches, how passing works, what the money looks like, and how renewal is handled.
One framing point matters before anything else. HDFP is not a single standalone test you book at a testing center. It is a certification earned by completing four required courses, each with a required examination. That structure shapes every other fact below, from the passing threshold to the way "exam dates" actually work. If you want the longer treatment of each topic, the HDFP Study Guide and the What Is HDFP Certification? overview go deeper.
The Four-Course Map at a Glance
The public curriculum groups 20 top-level headings under the four required courses. Use this table as your one-page orientation.
| Course | Subject | Domains (curriculum headings) |
|---|---|---|
| HD410 | Home Ownership Finance | Domains 1-6 |
| HD420 | Rental Housing Development Finance | Domains 7-14 |
| HD423 | Computer Spreadsheet Analysis for Rental Housing | Domains 15-17 |
| HD435 | Rental Housing Development Finance: Problem Solving & Deal Structuring | Domains 18-20 |
Two cautions. First, the 20 lines are unweighted preparation headings, so do not assume each carries equal exam weight or that they exhaustively describe every question. Second, "Deal Structuring" appears twice (Domain 14 in HD420 and Domain 18 in HD435). They belong to different courses and are intentionally retained as separate headings. For a fuller breakdown, see the HDFP Exam Domains guide.
HD410: Home Ownership Finance Facts
HD410 is the homeownership half of the pathway. Its six headings move from the big picture of how affordable homeownership gets built to the mechanics of qualifying a buyer and placing a permanent mortgage.
Domains 1-2: Home Ownership Development Overview and Process
The framing material: who the players are and how a homeownership development moves from concept to closed sales.
- Know the sequence of a homeownership development from start to finish
- Understand how the development process connects to the financing that follows
Domain 3: Financing and Deal Structuring
How the pieces of a homeownership deal are assembled into a workable capital stack.
- Practice thinking in sources and uses
- Recognize how subsidy and financing layers interact
Domains 4-6: Qualifying Buyers, Income and Credit Barriers, Permanent Mortgage Programs
The buyer-side underwriting toolkit.
- Qualifying Home Buyers: how a household's capacity to purchase is evaluated
- Home Buyer Income and Credit Barriers: the obstacles that block otherwise motivated buyers
- Permanent Mortgage Programs: the end-loan products that take out development financing
The September 2026 HD410 remote cohort referenced in the public record is closed for enrollment, but its curriculum was publicly available, which is why these headings are reliable even though paid lesson content is not public.
HD420: Rental Housing Development Finance Facts
HD420 is the largest block of the pathway, with eight headings, and it is the gateway course: later courses depend on it. It is also the course with the most detail published about a specific delivery. The Housing Training Institute's listing of the Grow America HD420 offering describes 40 hours of coursework, a five-hour examination, one attempt, and a 70% pass requirement. Treat those as conditions of that particular offering rather than a universal HDFP timer or retake policy.
Domains 7-9: Process, Financial Projections, Private Sector Financing
The foundation of rental deal analysis.
- Rental Housing Development Process: how a rental project progresses through development stages
- Financial Projections: building the pro forma that drives every lender and investor conversation
- Private Sector Financing: how conventional capital participates in affordable rental deals
Domains 10-11: Appraisals and Tax Credits
Valuation and the subsidy engine of affordable rental housing.
- Appraisals: how value is determined and why it constrains financing
- Tax Credits: how credit-based equity changes what a project can afford to do
Domains 12-14: Discounted Cash Flow Analysis, Syndication, Deal Structuring
The analytical and structuring layer.
- Discounted Cash Flow Analysis: evaluating a stream of future cash against today's investment
- Syndication: how equity is raised and shared among investors
- Deal Structuring: bringing every source together into a financeable whole
Key Takeaway
Because HD420 gates both HD423 and HD435, finishing it cleanly is the single most consequential step in the pathway. Treat its eight headings as the core of the whole credential.
HD423 and HD435: Spreadsheets and Deal Structuring
The back half of the pathway turns concepts into hands-on modeling and problem solving.
HD423: Computer Spreadsheet Analysis for Rental Housing
HD423 covers three headings, and the source spellings are preserved here exactly as published:
- Domain 15: Spread Sheet Basics (the foundational mechanics)
- Domain 16: Rental Housing Spreads Sheets (applying those mechanics to rental housing analysis)
- Domain 17: Debt and Equity Investment Vehicles (modeling how debt and equity enter a deal)
The reviewed HD423 cohort requires successful HD420 completion at least 15 business days earlier, and its registration closes 10 business days before the start. Do not generalize those cutoffs to every cohort or delivery.
HD435: Problem Solving and Deal Structuring
HD435 is the capstone, with three headings:
- Domain 18: Deal Structuring (the second appearance of this heading, now at problem-solving depth)
- Domain 19: Fees and Reserves
- Domain 20: Other Issues
The reviewed HD435 cohort requires both HD420 and HD423, with HD423 completed at least 15 business days earlier. As with HD423, that cutoff is cohort-specific.
Scoring, Format, and Unknowns
Here is the verified picture of how assessment works, followed by the things the public record does not tell you.
| Item | What is verified |
|---|---|
| Examinations | One required examination per course (four total) |
| Passing threshold | At least 70% on each examination |
| Completion rule | All required courses and all required exams must be completed |
| Administration | Grow America administers the course assessments |
| Timing | Program wording places each class exam on the final day; online delivery can schedule it after coursework |
| Time limit to finish the series | No time limit stated on the program page or FAQ |
For deeper treatment of the threshold itself, see HDFP Passing Score. For the scheduling side, HDFP Exam Dates explains why dates track course cohorts rather than a fixed national testing calendar.
What is not publicly published
- Exact question counts and any scored versus unscored split
- Response formats (multiple choice, short answer, problem sets)
- A common examination timer across all four courses
- An aggregate pass rate
- A formal weighted blueprint or any official percentage weights
- A numbered exam version (2026 cohort labels are not exam versions)
Learning formats include self-paced online, live remote, and in person. Those delivery formats do not tell you whether an exam is proctored, open-book, calculator-permitted, or adaptive. Confirm exam-day rules with Grow America for the specific course you enroll in. If you are weighing difficulty, the difficulty guide and pass rate article explain what can and cannot be said from public data.
Tuition, Enrollment, and Sequencing
Published pricing
Published program tuition is USD $7,250-$7,400, with a summary range of $1,700-$1,850 per course. These are training and certification prices, not an exam-only fee, and no member versus non-member split was verified. Tuition includes necessary course materials unless a specific course description says otherwise.
| Course delivery | Listed price | Note |
|---|---|---|
| HD420 self-paced | $1,700 | Within the summary range |
| HD435 reviewed cohort | $1,850 | Within the summary range |
| HD423 November 2026 | $1,110 | Outside the summary range; no replacement program total is inferred |
The HD423 early discount expired October 3, 2026. The full cost picture, including how to think about these figures, is in the HDFP Certification Cost breakdown.
Entry and sequencing
- No prerequisites are required to begin the pathway, and there is no time limit to complete the series.
- Advanced-course sequencing still applies: HD423 follows HD420, and HD435 follows both.
- Registration cutoffs in the reviewed HD423 and HD435 cohorts close 10 business days before the start.
Eligibility details live in HDFP Requirements.
Renewal and Recertification Quick Reference
Holding the credential is not a one-time event. Renewal keeps your status active on a three-year cycle.
| Renewal element | Rule |
|---|---|
| Cycle | Three years |
| Continuing education | 24 credited hours |
| Grow America share | At least 12 hours from Grow America |
| External share | At most 12 approved external credits |
| External conversion | Two external activity hours yield one credited hour |
| Renewal fee | $250, nonrefundable |
| Late penalty | $50 per late year for up to five years following the initial rollout |
| Long lapse | More than five consecutive inactive years requires meeting current initial certification requirements |
External activities require review and approval, and eligible activity submissions are dated after May 6, 2024 per the guide.
Also note the FAQ's distinction between keeping the earned designation and retaining an active Credly digital badge, since Grow America confirms only certifications in good standing.
Sequencing Your Prep Around the Four Courses
Because HDFP preparation follows the course structure, schedule your effort by course, not by a generic calendar. A reasonable arrangement, given the dependency rules above, looks like this:
HD410 homeownership block
- Work Domains 1-3 first to anchor the development and financing flow
- Then Domains 4-6 for buyer qualification and mortgage programs
HD420 rental core
- Build Financial Projections and Discounted Cash Flow Analysis until you can do them from a blank page
- Layer in Tax Credits, Syndication, and Appraisals, then close with Deal Structuring
HD423 then HD435
- Use HD423 to turn HD420 concepts into working models
- Use HD435 to practice Fees and Reserves and integrated problem solving
Why this order: HD420's analytics feed the spreadsheet work in HD423, and HD435 assumes both. Reviewing Discounted Cash Flow Analysis before opening a spreadsheet saves real time. To pressure-test your recall between courses, run a few sessions on the HDFP practice test site and use the missed topics to decide where to reread. The HDFP Study Guide pairs well with this staged approach.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. It is a four-course certification pathway (HD410, HD420, HD423, HD435) with one required examination per course. All courses and exams must be completed. See What Is HDFP? for the full picture.
Each examination requires at least 70%. One HD420 delivery also lists one attempt and a five-hour examination, but those are offering-specific conditions, not a universal HDFP timer or retake policy.
No weighted blueprint or official percentage weights were verified. The 20 lines are published, unweighted curriculum headings grouped under the four courses, so avoid assuming any one domain is "largest."
The program page and FAQ state there are no prerequisites to begin and no time limit to complete the series. However, HD423 and HD435 cohorts require earlier completion of HD420, and HD435 also requires HD423.
Renewal runs on a three-year cycle with 24 credited continuing-education hours (at least 12 from Grow America, at most 12 approved external credits) and a $250 nonrefundable fee. Confirm your specific deadline directly, since the guide and webpage differ on boundary dates. For career context, see Is the HDFP Certification Worth It?