When you're offered a "rate lock" from your lender, it means that you are guaranteed to get a specific interest rate for a determined period for the application process. This prevents you from working through your entire application process and finding out at the end that the interest rate has risen higher.
Although there can be a choice of rate lock periods (from 15 to 60 days), the longer spans are usually more expensive. You can get a longer period for your lock, but in doing so, will probably have a higher rate than you would with a shorter rate lock span of time
There are other ways to get a low rate, in addition to choosing a shorter rate lock period. The larger the down payment, the better your rate will be, as you will be entering the loan with more equity. You may opt to pay points to reduce your rate over 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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