Roam lets homeowners sell their below-market mortgage so they can move without giving up their 3% rate

Summary

Roam is a platform that lets homebuyers purchase a home by assuming the seller's existing FHA or VA mortgage — locking in rates as low as 2% to 3% at a time when prevailing rates sit around 7%. The founder, Ronik, describes the core problem simply: millions of sellers feel trapped because giving up a sub-3% mortgage to buy elsewhere at current rates is economically punishing, while roughly 75 million families cannot afford to buy at today's rates at all.

The legal mechanism has existed since the savings and loan crisis reshaped mortgage regulation. When blanket assumability was eliminated for most loans in the late 1980s, FHA and VA government-backed loans were carved out and remained assumable. An estimated $1.5 trillion in those loans were originated during the low-rate years of 2020 and 2021 — but the market never activated because sellers typically don't know what type of loan they have, don't think to market it as an asset, and banks have little incentive to facilitate a transfer when they make more money originating a new 7% loan.

Supply-side hack

Rather than waiting for sellers to opt in, Roam cross-referenced every home listing in the US with every mortgage record and pre-loaded the supply. A Houston search on Zillow via keyword returns roughly two assumable-loan listings; the same search on Roam returns around 2,000. That gap exists because Zillow surfaces only what sellers self-report to the MLS.

To overcome bank foot-dragging on closing, Roam committed to covering the seller's mortgage payments if a transaction takes longer than 45 days to close — a guarantee designed to remove the friction banks otherwise let linger.

Economics

An independent study of Roam's transactions found sellers receive 5% more for their home when they market it with the assumable mortgage included, and buyers save $700 per month compared to purchasing at current market rates. Ronik's prior data point, from his time at Opendoor, underlines the seller lock-in problem: 90% of homeowners with a 7% mortgage were willing to sell to Opendoor, but only 5% of those with a 2% mortgage would do the same.

The business carries no balance sheet risk — Roam is a marketplace and transaction facilitator, not a lender.

Investor angle

Roam has also built out an investor-specific product. VA loans don't require primary residency, so investors can assume a VA-backed loan, put in the gap capital, and rent the property out. Roam surfaces these listings separately on the platform.

Series A

Roam closed an $11.5 million Series A led by Khosla Ventures, with Founders Fund participating. Khosla's Keith Rabois led the pre-seed, seed, and Series A — all three rounds — and joined the board alongside Eric Wu, the Opendoor founder, who also joined at Series A. The round closed in roughly a week.

Distribution

Organic demand has been strong without paid spend: roughly 250,000 buyers have visited the site, driven largely by press coverage including a front-page Wall Street Journal story at launch. Going forward, Roam is targeting three channels — educating sellers and listing agents to lead with the rate as a differentiating feature, broad consumer marketing on affordability, and partnerships with mortgage servicers and buyer's agents who can re-engage their existing pipelines of price-sensitive prospects.

If Zillow were to integrate assumable-loan search natively, Ronik sees that as net positive — Roam's pitch to Zillow is effectively a button on every listing card that routes transactions through Roam's closing infrastructure.