getting points on a loan

[Mike Troyke]

When you get points on a loan what you are essentially doing is just paying interest in order to get a lower interest rate and not actually putting money into the house, correct? To me it would seem dumb to do this because you could be getting equity in the house but instead you are just paying down on interest you will be paying anyways. Is this the right way to think about it or am I backwards and by lowering points you overall lower the amount you will end up paying for the house.