Closing on Property in Union City - Rate lock/lending question

[Daljit S.]

Hi BP, 

I'm in the process of closing on first property, a 2-family house hack in Union city. I was waiting on the Certificate of Occupancy and Smoke Cert before scheduling a closing date. 

Towards the beginning of November, my loan officer recommended locking in a rate, I decided to wait because we were not sure when the closing date would be because we were waiting on the Certificate of Occupancy and Smoke Cert. I wanted to avoid paying any rate lock extension fee's in the event that it could take more than 30-45 days to get the Certs. At this time loan officer was able to lock in a rate around 3.1-3.2%. 

A few weeks have gone by and my agent has told me that we've gotten the Certs and can schedule the closing date. I updated my lender. However, now the rate that I will be receiving is around 3.625%. I'm a bit bummed because I could have locked a lower rate for 45 days in the beginning of November. 

What can I do to possibly get a lower rate? It is possible to negotiate with the lender if I have another lender that can provide a lower rate? or am I stuck with the 3.6% rate? The 3.6% rate would add an extra $300 to my monthly payment and make this deal less ideal that what it initially was. 

Thanks in advance! 

[Luke Pontier]

Unfortunately, rates have gone up within the past month, so there’s no guarantee that other lenders would have a better rate. At this stage in the process, it would also be difficult to find a lender that could meet your time constraints with a closing imminent. If you are more worried about long term expenses than initial cash output at closing, you can buy “points” with your lender, which will lower your rate in exchange for an upfront cash payment.