When you are offered a "rate lock" from a lender, it means that you are guaranteed to get a particular interest rate over a determined period for your application process. This protects you from going through your whole application process and discovering at the end that your interest rate has gotten higher.
Rate lock periods can be various lengths of time, between fifteen to sixty days, with the longer period usually costing more. You can get a longer period for your lock, but in doing so, will probably have a higher rate than you would have with a shorter span of time
In addition to going with a shorter rate lock period, there are other ways you may be able to get the lowest rate. A larger down payment will give you a lower interest rate, because you will have a good amount of equity from the beginning. You can pay points to improve your rate over the life of the loan, meaning you pay more initially. For a lot of people, this is a good option..
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