Your 3% Rate Shouldn’t Decide Where Your Family Lives

By Chris Beal, The Stewards

Almost every week, someone sits across from me and says some version of this:

“We love our rate. We just don’t love our house anymore.”

Maybe the kids have outgrown three bedrooms. Maybe an aging parent needs to live closer. Maybe life has simply moved on and the house hasn’t. Then the same fear comes up every time: if we move, we lose the 3% rate we locked in back in 2020 or 2021.

I understand that fear. A rate like that is valuable. But I don’t want it making decisions for your family by default, because in a lot of cases you don’t have to give it up at all.

You have more than two options

Most homeowners think it’s either:

• Sell everything and start over at today’s rates, or

• Stay put in a home that doesn’t fit anymore.

There’s a third path: keep your current mortgage exactly as it is and buy your next home separately. It isn’t a loophole. It’s a structured plan, and Ryan and I build these with move-up families all the time.

How families actually make it work

Borrow against your equity, not your rate. A HELOC is a separate loan that sits beside your first mortgage. It doesn’t change your rate or terms. Many families use it to cover the down payment on the next home, then pay it off if and when they sell the first one.

Keep the old house as a rental. This is the one I love walking people through. You hold on to the low-rate home, rent it out, and buy your next place as your new primary residence. Lenders can usually count about 75% of the documented rent toward that old payment, which can change your qualifying picture more than you’d expect.

If it’s truly a second home, finance it that way. A cabin, a lake place, or a home near family that you’ll use part of the year can be financed with its own conventional second-home loan, and your current mortgage stays untouched. One honest note: a bigger house across town isn’t a second home in a lender’s eyes. That’s a new primary residence with different rules, and it’s better to know that up front.

The number that matters most

With any of these, a lender has to count both housing payments against your income. Most cap your combined debt-to-income ratio somewhere around 43% to 45%, and they’ll want to see some reserves in the bank.

So this isn’t “anyone can do it.” Some families will be ready now. Others will need a little time, and if that’s you, I’d rather tell you directly than have you find out halfway through a contract.

What I’ve seen over and over is that people who are sure they’re stuck often aren’t. They just haven’t seen their real numbers laid out side by side.

Let’s look at yours

If you want the full breakdown, with HELOC math, lender requirements, and the most common questions, it’s all on our blog:

👉 You Don’t Have to Give Up Your 3% Rate to Buy Your Next Home

If you’re a Central Ohio homeowner and want your own situation modeled, join Ryan and me at UNSTUCK, our live session for homeowners who feel locked in by their rate. Register at stewards.loan/unstuck, or call or text 614-767-5273. You’ll walk away knowing whether it works, not guessing.

Chris Beal, NMLS #[Chris’s NMLS] | Ruoff Mortgage | Equal Housing Opportunity