Whether you’re refinancing or purchasing, locking in a record-low interest mortgage rate can save you hundreds of dollars each month. Besides the common factors such as an excellent credit score, a low debt-to-income ratio and sufficient equity or down payment, here are some less known factors that may help you score a historically-low mortgage rate

1. Get “real time” mortgage rate notifications-Rates recently hit record lows, but by the time it was reported in the news, those mortgage rates had increased and were no longer available. If you’d like to be notified as soon as record-low rates are published, please call or e-mail to be added to the notification list.
2. Don’t push your luck-Pre-determine your ideal mortgage rate and lock in as soon as rates reach that mark. Holding out for further rate decreases is not recommended, because the decreases may never occur. Furthermore, you could even miss out on your ideal mortgage rate in the end.
3. Act quickly-Rates are quite volatile and have been known to change numerous times during the day. If you hesitate, you run the risk of mortgage rates increasing from one hour to the next.

Posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 6:28 pm and is filed under Mortgage Rates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.