What is a "rate lock period"?

Locking It In

A rate "lock" or "commitment" is a promise from the lender to hold a certain interest rate and a specific number of points for you for a certain period of time during your application process. This protects you from going through your whole application process and discovering at the end that the interest rate has gotten higher.

Although there are several lengths of rate lock periods (from 15 to 60 days), the extended ones are generally more expensive. You can get a longer period for your lock, but in doing so, will likely have a higher rate than you would with a shorter rate lock period

Other Ways to Save on Interest

In addition to going with the shorter rate lock period, there are more ways you can get the lowest rate. The larger down payment you can make, the better the rate will be, as you will have more equity from the beginning. You might opt to pay points to reduce your rate over the life of the loan, meaning you pay more initially. For a lot of people, this makes sense and is a good deal..

At Diamond Mortgage, LLC, we answer questions about this process every day. Give us a call at 3178427744.