Can Someone Just Take Over My Mortgage Payments?

Yes, but only on certain loans, and only if your lender signs off. FHA, VA and USDA loans are generally assumable, meaning a buyer can step into your exact rate and your remaining balance instead of taking out a brand new loan. Conventional loans almost never work this way.

The company that built a whole marketplace around this just walked away from it.

What Happened to the Company Built Around This?

Roam launched in 2023 as a marketplace matching buyers with sellers whose loans could be taken over, and it raised $11.5 million in its first funding round last year, led by Khosla Ventures. As of this August, Roam’s own website says it no longer handles home discovery or assumption processing. ResiClub, which covers housing data, reported on August 31 that it isn’t clear what the company does next, and that Roam hadn’t answered a request for comment.

Which Loans Can Actually Be Taken Over?

FHA, VA and USDA loans, generally. Conventional loans almost always carry a due-on-sale clause, which forces the balance to be paid off the moment the house changes hands.

Why Is This Pool of Cheap Loans Shrinking When Almost Nobody’s Selling?

Because the loans don’t need a sale to disappear. ResiClub calculated, off the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s own mortgage database, that 40.2 percent of the dollars still owed on FHA, VA and USDA loans carry a rate under 4 percent as of the first quarter of this year. Four years earlier, that figure was 75.6 percent.

That’s a share of the balance still owed, not a share of houses or a share of borrowers. It’s shrinking because home sales are near a four-decade low adjusted for population, so these loans mostly aren’t leaving through a closing table. They’re leaving through the mailbox, one payment at a time. A loan at 2.9 percent sends a bigger chunk of every payment toward principal than a loan at 6.5 percent does, so the cheap balances pay down faster than the expensive ones. The rate stays low. The amount of money carrying that rate keeps shrinking.

What Stops Most Buyers From Doing This?

Cash, usually. Say a house is worth $400,000 and the seller has a $250,000 balance at 2.99 percent. The buyer still has to come up with the $150,000 difference, either in cash or with a second loan stacked on top of the assumed one. Most first-time buyers can’t do that.

Does This Work If You Owe More Than the House Is Worth?

No, and this is the part that matters most if you’re behind. That $150,000 gap in the example above is a problem a seller with equity can solve. If you owe more than the house is worth, there’s no gap to bridge, because a buyer taking over your balance would be buying the shortfall along with the house. At that point you’re not looking at an assumption. You’re looking at a short sale, where the lender has to agree to let the house go for less than what’s owed.

What About VA Loans Here in Jacksonville?

Worth knowing if you’re near NAS Jacksonville, NS Mayport or Kings Bay, where VA loans are common. ResiClub’s reporting flags one specific issue: if a non-veteran assumes a VA loan, the seller’s VA entitlement generally stays tied to that loan until it’s paid off, which can limit the seller’s ability to use a VA loan on the next house, unless the buyer is an eligible veteran substituting their own entitlement in its place. That’s ResiClub’s read of the rule, and anyone facing that decision might want it confirmed in writing from the servicer and from VA before signing anything.

In other news, two of the five ZIP codes with the highest share of abandoned foreclosures in the country this quarter are in Florida, and the mistake sitting underneath that number has a plain answer in Florida law.

Do I Still Own My House During Foreclosure?

Yes. Moving out doesn’t end your ownership, and it doesn’t end the bills that come with owning the place either.

What Did ATTOM’s New Report Actually Find?

ATTOM released its Q3 2026 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report on August 28. Out of 104.6 million residential properties nationwide, 259,666 were in the foreclosure process. Of those, 8,482 sat vacant because the owner left before the case finished. That’s 3.3 percent, close to where it’s held for the last year.

Two of the five ZIP codes with the highest share of abandoned foreclosures anywhere in the country are in Florida: 33708 in St. Petersburg at 38.3 percent, and 34652 in New Port Richey at 32.6 percent. Both are in the Tampa Bay area. Nothing in Northeast Florida shows up in this release.

That 38.3 percent isn’t 38 percent of the houses in that ZIP code. It’s 38 percent of the houses already in foreclosure there, on a list that only ranked ZIP codes with at least 1,000 homes and at least 25 already in pre-foreclosure. On a base that small, a handful of houses moves the number a lot.

Why Doesn’t Moving Out End My Ownership?

Because Florida forecloses through the court system, and the case stays open and reversible until the sale actually happens. Under Florida law, a circuit court can rescind or set aside a foreclosure judgment any time before the sale, which restores the mortgage as if the case had never been filed. Whoever handed back the keys in month two is still the legal owner through all of it, right up until a sale actually closes the case.

What Keeps Running While the House Sits Empty?

The dues. Florida law makes a condo owner liable for every assessment that comes due while they own the unit, and it says that liability can’t be avoided by giving up use of the property or by walking away from it. The same duty applies to homeowners association dues on a house. I wrote about how that money gets applied a few weeks back: interest first, then the late fee, then costs and attorney fees, and only after all of that does anything go toward the actual assessment. That ordering is why a small balance on an empty house can outrun the person who left it.

What Does This Mean for One Specific Address?

That turns on the file, the county and what’s actually been filed, and it belongs with a Florida real estate attorney rather than a general answer.

Jacksonville, Florida is home base, and distressed property is most of what lands on my desk. Happy to talk through either one of these if it’s close to your own situation.

JimArmstrong904@gmail.com, or (904) 671-4161 if talking beats typing.

Jim Armstrong, REALTOR® · Momentum Realty · SFR® (Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource) certified. This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice.

Momentum Realty is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender.