Mortgage Rate Lock Expires Before Closing – This Is What To Do

There are few things that your lender can do if your mortgage rate lock expires before closing, and this help that your lender wants to offer might be based on a fee or not based on a fee. If there is a fee, you should know that there isn’t a fixed fee, but it varies from one lender to another.

First of all, the first thing that a lender would do when your mortgage rate lock expires before closing is to offer to extend the rate lock, but there are still some factors that can be applied if the lender decides not to extend the rate lock.

If you are preparing to purchase or refinance a home, then it is okay for you to apply for a loan long before its closing date starts coming. Still, once its closing date gets to just a month or two months away, then the lender would permit you to lock in your interest rates over a period of time.

However, you should know that your rate lock will lose its validity when you want to extend closing past the expiration date of the rate lock.

Mortgage Rate Lock Expires Before Closing

Furthermore, this loan would be made on fresh terms, and the former points and rate might no longer be available. If you want to avoid a rate lock, then you should try to find out what time your loan is expected to close because it would help find out the best time for you to lock in your rates. Getting the fee schedule in advance is another sure way of ensuring that you have an additional amount of time for you to lock in your loan rate.

Let us break it down for you. What this means is if how long it would take to close your loan is thirty days, then you should find out how much fee it would cost to lock it in for sixty days. If you believe that your rates would go up, then your mortgage lender would agree, and it is also advisable that an extension is paid in advance.

A loan’s typical extension cost falls between 0.125 and 0.350 cents. You should expect it to be extended for about fifteen days on a one hundred thousand dollar loan that would cost one hundred and twenty-five dollars.

It is common for most lenders to lock in interest rates between thirty days to about sixty days without charging a fee. If you are a specific borrower, you can also profit from paying an extended lock rate because of rising rates.

For instance, a construction loan borrower who pays for an eight-month lock rate can try to save up some money over a period of time, but the extension, in this case, would depend on the lender. You have the option of floating your loan pending till the day of underwriting for a fee.

One thing we would like you to have in mind is that rate locks are not free. Most lenders tend to fix in rate locks into the rate that you are being offered, and it is when the rate lock expires, fees can be accessed, and the borrower would like to extend the loan lock period.

The importance of rate locks is to ensure that borrowers are well protected against the negative changes that happen in the market interest rates. It is generally the sole decision of the borrower to pick a good time to lock in interest rates.

However, this is possible since the loan closing date is still up ahead, and if the borrower also believes that there is a possibility of a lower rate, he might decide to wait a while before locking it in. If the borrower also believes that the current rate would be the best that anyone would see, he would opt to lock it in for about ten to sixty days.

Rate locks always come with interest rates, and when the lock expires, the borrower has two options: looking for new interest points and rates to lock in.

The borrower could also negotiate with the lender to get an extension, and this depends on the market whether the lender would grant an extension. If there has been a significant increase in the interest rates, the borrower is left with no choice but to look for a new rate.