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With mortgage rates hovering in the 7% range, being able to snag yourself a mortgage with a much lower interest rate probably sounds very appealing. This is why a new company called Roam has been all over the news recently, after recently launching a platform to help home buyers find mortgages they can assume for as low as 2%.
You’re probably thinking that sounds a little too good to be true, but certainly worth looking into if it’s even remotely possible. And you’d be right on both accounts.
Assumable mortgages aren’t a new thing; they’re no more available now than they were last week, last month, or last year. Roam is just trying to make it easier to find houses that are for sale and the owner has an assumable mortgage at an interest rate that’s lower than current market rates.
As you can imagine, they’d like to get paid for connecting you to a sweetheart mortgage rate. So be ready to pay them a fee of 1% of the mortgage you assume. For example, if the mortgage you assume is $400,000, you’d have to pay them $4,000, which isn’t bad considering the savings you’ll reap over the life of the loan.
The real catch is that their service is currently only available in five states: Georgia, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, and Florida. So if you’re not looking to buy in any of those states, it’s no easier to find a house you can buy with an assumable mortgage. Even if you do, you’re probably not going to find an all-inclusive list of homes that you can buy with an assumable mortgage, because it’s new to the market, and it relies on homeowners registering their house on the site.
Even though Roam may not be the solution for you that doesn’t mean you can’t find an assumable mortgage and buy a house at a lower interest rate!
In fact, it may be better to do it without relying on a website with limited inventory. If you were to only focus on houses being listed on a site like Roam — even if they did service your area — there’s a good chance you’d be missing out on other houses on the market that you like more, or better fit your needs.
If you want to try and buy a house with an assumable mortgage, here’s a simple step-by-step approach:
Keep in mind that some owners may not be interested in going through the process or risk of working with a buyer to have their mortgage assumed, especially if they have other interested buyers who are going more traditional routes with their mortgage, or paying cash. They’ll also most likely expect you (and the lender) to sign paperwork releasing them of any responsibility to the loan moving forward, because even if you assume their mortgage, they’d still be responsible for the debt if you default.
Trying to find a house that even has an assumable mortgage takes some effort, and there’s still no guarantee that the owner will agree to let you assume it, or that the bank will approve you. But it’s at least worth a shot if it means saving a lot of money on your monthly mortgage payments, and the life of the loan.
The Takeaway:
A new company called Roam recently launched a platform to try and connect buyers with sellers who have assumable mortgages, which aims to help buyers obtain a mortgage at lower rates than most loans are currently at. However, they only serve a limited area, and do not have an all-inclusive inventory of homes on the market.
Fortunately, you don’t need a company to help you find and obtain an assumable mortgage. You can always find out if the owner of a home you want to buy has an assumable mortgage, and if they’re agreeable to letting you assume it, you can apply for the mortgage through their lender. While it may take some effort, and there’s no guarantee that an assumable mortgage will be available on the home you truly want, it’s at least worth looking into in order to try and save money on your monthly payments, and the life of the loan.
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