Comments on: Locking in Our Interest Rate

By: CharlieBoy

CharlieBoy — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:27:00 +0000

>> when you’re doing it the mortgage feels like the Biggest Decision Ever.

Correct. It is one of the biggest decisions ever if one does the math.
I think I had closed my 30-year mortgage for about a month when I realized that the rates had gone down again by 1%. When I looked at the amortization schedule for my 30-year mortgage, I felt depressed. I was 44 on a brand-new 30-year mortgage. So I made the decision to pay the fees and get into a 15-year mortgage. What a great decision! 15 versus 30 is a no-brainer to me. I wasn’t charged a penny to lock the rate. They did it over the phone and within days I was signing the closing papers. I called them the day the rates touched 5% and started the refinance process that day, over the phone.

By: John

John — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:19:34 +0000

I locked in about 2.5 weeks ago at 4.25% on a 15 year fixed. I was very happy to get it and I am closing on the 30th. It was a local bank that offered that rate and his closing costs were also some of the lowest I’ve seen.

By: Clf

Clf — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:28:21 +0000

We just renegotiated our mortgage for another 5 years and left it floating 1 point above prime. We can lock it in any time, and we are looking at doing that.

By: Paul in NJ

Paul in NJ — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:43:37 +0000

Yes, some lenders charge you a fee to lock in your rate, but the question you need to ask is “Is this fee refundable?”

If so, you’ll find that it’s refundable if you close with them. If you don’t go through with the loan, you forfeit it.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:24:05 +0000

I wound up going with a mortgage broker, and I’m really happy I did. I did my loan shopping, but the big banks really weren’t giving me the customer service I wanted. I didn’t understand the process, it was my first time after all. The broker explained the process to me, the practice of floating the loan etc, and I gained a much better understanding of the process. The banks wouldn’t even send me a GFE.
The broker gets a better rate, and the way he gets his fee is in the origination fees – which you pay anyway. He wound up locking us at 5%, but then rates shifted downward, and he was able to re-negotiate for 4.875%. I was able to beat the advertised rate at the bank by an eighth of a point, I didn’t have to deal with banks who didn’t want to talk to me, and I was able to close in 30 days.

By: BG

BG — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:28:07 +0000

A friend of mine recently refinanced and he had a “45-day floating lock” thing. He basically got the lowest interest rate that happened to occur in that 45-day window. Not sure if that is common, or if he had to pay extra for that.

By: Rosa

Rosa — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:57:01 +0000

Congratulations!

It can turn into an obsession – there’s so much room for buyer’s remorse over 20 or 30 years, when you’re doing it the mortgage feels like the Biggest Decision Ever.

By: Broke MBA

Broke MBA — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:40:30 +0000

Congrats!

We currently have a 4.5% – 15 year rate locked in and are set to close on November 6.

We did a 45 day lock which didn’t affect the 15 year rate. If we had gone with a 30 year fixed rate, the 30 day lock would have been 5% and the 45 day lock would have been 5.125%.

By: Jared

Jared — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:07:27 +0000

We locked in last week at 5% on our FHA refi as well. Our original rate was 5.875%, so we are excited to be saving a nice bit of cash.

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:29:28 +0000

We refinanced back in April (started the process in January, it took forever!) Midway through February we told our mortgage broker to lock us in at 4.75%. A month later he started talking about how we would have to see what rates did and decide when we wanted to lock our rate. I found out that he hadn’t locked us in when I told him to, he had been working on so many applications that he had forgotten when I told him to lock us in and rates had gone up to 5% by then. Luckily he was an honorable person and he used broker fee that he would normally get to buy down the rate for us. He made no money off the deal, but I got my 4.75%. Since I had just told him verbally and not in writing to lock us in, he could have claimed that it never happened. That is why it is a good idea to put everything in writing.

By: VInny Financio

VInny Financio — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:08:38 +0000

Great post Laura!
I agree, I’d lock things in sooner than later. There’s not much room for a downward movement on rates so you’re more likely looking at a climb instead of a drop.

I’m going to forward this to some friend that are house shopping as we speak!

By: John DeFlumeri Jr

John DeFlumeri Jr — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:25:02 +0000

Good decision, rates can only go up from here!

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:15:07 +0000

Rates can be a gamble we were fortunate, because we waited until the last minute to lock in our rate we were able to get a 4.5 if we had locked when we started our refinance it would have been more like a 5. Longer locks can also affect the available rate. A 5 day lock could get you a 5% while a 30 day could get you a 5.5%