Buy the house.
Keep the old rate.
Some LA homes come with a mortgage attached to them — one you can take over at the rate the current owner locked in, sometimes years ago. Pair it with a second loan to cover the gap, and your blended rate can still land well under today’s. If that sounds worth exploring, this is where you start.
What an assumable mortgage actually is
Certain loans — most FHA, VA, and USDA mortgages — can legally transfer from a seller to a buyer, rate and all. You qualify for the loan, take over the remaining balance and terms, and the seller is released from it. It’s not a workaround or a loophole; it’s a feature that’s been written into these loan types for decades, and in a market like this one, it matters more than it used to.
How an assumption actually closes
We find you a home with an assumable loan
Not every listing discloses this. Part of what we do is identify FHA, VA, and USDA-financed homes in your target neighborhoods before they’re marketed as “assumable” — or at all.
We size up the gap — and cover it
The loan balance is almost never the full purchase price. Joe Parisi at Rate structures a second loan against the difference, up to 90% combined loan-to-value on conventional financing, so your blended rate across both loans still comes in under today’s market rate.
You apply to assume the loan
The current lender or servicer underwrites you much like a standard mortgage — income, credit, and the rest. Joe handles both the assumption approval and the second loan, and keeps them moving in parallel.
You close, and the old rate becomes yours
Title transfers, the seller is released from the loan, and you keep making payments on the same terms they had for the assumed portion — plus your second loan — for the life of each.
Who this tends to make sense for
You heard this on The Key to the City of Angels. This page is the follow-up to that episode — everything below gets you a real, personal answer instead of another general explainer.
Get on a call with us
Tell us where you’re at and we’ll set up a short call with Rick Albert and Joe Parisi (your assumable-mortgage and second-loan contact at Rate) to walk through whether an assumable loan fits what you’re trying to do — and which listings might already qualify.
