What is a "rate lock period"?

Locking in your Interest Rate

A rate "lock" or "commitment" is a promise from the lender to freeze a certain interest rate and a particular number of points for you for a specified period while your application is processed. This protects you from going through your entire application process and learning at the end that the interest rate has gone up.

While there might 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 choosing this option, will likely have a higher rate than you would with a shorter rate lock span of time

Other Interest Saving Strategies

In addition to choosing the shorter rate lock period, there are other ways you can get the best rate. A bigger down payment will get you a lower interest rate, because you'll have a good amount of equity at the start. You could choose to pay points to bring down your rate for the loan term, meaning you pay more initially. To a lot of people, this makes financial sense..

Harbor View Lending* a DBA of Megastar Financial can answer questions about rate lock periods & many others. Give us a call at (207) 571-8034.