Does my name come off the loan?
Only a lender-approved assumption with a written release does that. Everything else leaves the loan where it is.
Assumptions and releasesSeller education
The answers before the offer.
Every claim on this site about what a lender can do is backed by a primary source you can read yourself. These guides explain the structures, the risks, and the free options that come first.
9 guides
Start with the one that matches your situation.
If you are behind on payments or facing a deadline, read that guide first and call a HUD-approved housing counselor before you talk to any buyer, including us.
The structure behind the phrase
Subject-to, explained
A plain-language explanation of a subject-to sale: what transfers, what stays in the seller’s name, and the questions the paperwork has to answer.
Read the guide
The risk nobody should minimize
Due-on-sale clause
What a due-on-sale clause does, the federal law that governs it, the exceptions that exist, and how a seller should weigh the risk before transferring title.
Read the guide
Where the loan really changes hands
Assumable mortgages
How FHA, VA, and USDA loan assumptions work, why a conventional loan usually is not assumable, and what a release of liability does for the original borrower.
Read the guide
Start with the free options
Behind on payments
What the servicer must generally do before foreclosing, the loss-mitigation options worth asking for by name, and where to get free help that is not selling you anything.
Read the guide
A different legal position entirely
Inherited a mortgaged house
What a successor in interest can ask the servicer, the federal exception covering transfers after a borrower’s death, and how to decide what to do next.
Read the guide
Three different transactions, one phrase
Wraparound mortgages
Three structures get described as taking over payments. Here is what separates a wraparound note from a subject-to purchase and from a true lender-approved assumption.
Read the guide
For the landlord who is done
Selling a tenanted rental
How leases, security deposits, and an existing mortgage interact when a landlord sells a tenant-occupied property, and what a buyer has to document.
Read the guide
When the math is tight
Little or no equity
When the payoff is close to or above the value of the house, the usual advice stops working. Here are the options that remain and how to compare them.
Read the guide
Due diligence on the buyer
How to check a buyer
The structure is real and so are the bad actors. Ten specific things to verify before you sign anything with a buyer offering to take over your mortgage payments.
Read the guide
How to use these
Three questions worth settling first.
What can the lender do about a transfer?
Read the due-on-sale clause in your own security instrument, then read the federal statute that governs it.
Due-on-sale, in fullIs this buyer worth talking to?
Ten specific checks. Apply them to us as readily as to anyone else who calls you.
How to check a buyerNo-pressure property review
Read first. Decide second. Sign last.
Send the address, approximate loan balance, and monthly payment. We will tell you whether a payment-takeover structure deserves a closer look—or whether another route is likely better.