When you're promised a "rate lock" from your lender, it means that you are guaranteed to keep a particular interest rate over a certain number of days while you work on your application process. This ensures that your interest rate won't get higher as you are working through the application process.
Rate lock periods can vary in length, anywhere from 15 to 60 days, with the longer ones usually costing more. A lender may agree to freeze an interest rate and points for a longer span of time, such as 60 days, but in exchange, the rate (and sometimes points) will be higher than that of a rate lock of fewer days.
There are other ways to get a low rate, in addition to going with a shorter rate lock period. The bigger down payment you make, the better your interest rate will be, as you will have more equity from the start. You could opt to pay points to bring down your interest rate for the loan term, meaning you pay more initially. For a lot of people, this makes sense and is a good deal..
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