Community Chat

[Elom]

If any loan officers or realtors out there, how far in advance can you or should you get your mortgage loan approved or locked in? My dear husband handled all of this as his career was banking and I should have paid attention! My house will be completed the beginning of June.  Thank you in advance for any help.

[ccassaday]

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@Elom wrote:

If any loan officers or realtors out there, how far in advance can you or should you get your mortgage loan approved or locked in? My dear husband handled all of this as his career was banking and I should have paid attention! My house will be completed the beginning of June.  Thank you in advance for any help.

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I believe that depending on how far in advance you lock in willl determine the interest rate. Your probably close to needing it locked in. I would say about 60 days. We just built and closed. But we did a one time close and locked it in before construction started. 

[patbz]

Not a banker but rates are going up; start shopping around and lock as soon as you can.  Btw, I refinanced several years ago through Costco (a no name bank who sold the paper to Wells Fargo and I got a great rate).

[ccassaday]

I would also say find yourself a good local loan officer. They can really be invaluable in answering any questions. It will be important if you lock in its important your house will be done in time. Extensions can get expensive.

[Elom]

I am really wondering also  if I should ask for the lender to have incentives as to points or closing costs. 

[ccassaday]

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@Elom wrote:

I am really wondering also  if I should ask for the lender to have incentives as to points or closing costs. 

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It depends on your age and how long you will live there. If your in your 60’s I would pay a little higher interest rate with no points. Because you would never see the benefit. If your very younff like 30’s or 40’s where you will have that mortgage for a long time you would see the benefit of pre paying interest which is what your doing when you pay points.  Find your self s good local loan officer and they will walk you through everything. If you can go with a credit union they can be really good.

[151949]

We just went thru this mortgage process for the home we ended up not buying. They started the process immediately as soon as we signed we were buying the house. Within a few days we had a locked in interest rate which is important as they keep going up. About 3 weeks later we had the mortgage locked in also. We went to our builder's mortgage division as they offered to pay $10,000 of the closing costs if we used them.Our builder was called Cal Atlantic but is now merged with Lennar and is the largest builder in the USA. They were fabulous to deal with. We are still sad we could not buy the house. 

[Elom]

Thank you all for the information. Also must of very disappointing @151949 

I am working with the builders lender so I will persue getting closing costs reduced. Anything helps. I will be so happy when all the financial stuff is finished. This has been a very hard and long process as one.