Everyone wants to get the lowest possible mortgage rate – so how
do you go about getting it?

Have Good credit

The first thing is you need to have good credit – that’s a no
brainer. The higher your credit score, the less interest you’ll
have to pay.

One thing to remember about credit scores is that small
differences can have a significant effect on the interest rate you
get. Lenders rank credit scores in tiers, or brackets. If you’ve
already got decent credit, moving up or down into the next tier
will make a difference of about 0.2 percentage points on the
interest rate for a 30-year mortgage – for example, 4.4 percent
instead of 4.6 percent.

There’s not a lot you can do to improve your credit in a hurry.
Paying down a high debt load is one exception, particularly if it’s
credit card debt. If you’re using over one-third of your total debt
limit, it could be hurting your credit score. Even 20 percent might
take you down a notch.

Fixing errors on your credit report is another way. Order copies
of your credit report from each of the three credit reporting
agencies (Experian, Equifax and Transunion – you can get a free
report from each once a year) and check for any errors regarding
debts or payment history. If you find any, contact the credit
agency in question to dispute it, along with copies of any
supporting documents.

Down payment/equity

Though it’s often overlooked, the size of your down payment (or
amount of home equity, if you’re refinancing) can affect your
mortgage rate. The best rates are typically given to those who put
down 20 percent or more – when refinancing, you may need 25 percent
equity to get the best rates. Other cutoffs are around 10 percent
or 5 percent, so you may find that rates change above and below
these points.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you’ll need mortgage
insurance for any home loan with less than 20 percent down or home
equity. Private mortgage insurance charges an annual premium that
typically is around half a percent of the mortgage balance, which
is the same as paying another half percent in interest. So if
there’s a way you can come up with 20 percent down, it’s usually a
good idea to do so – perhaps by going for a cheaper house.

Paying points

One of the simplest ways to reduce your interest rate is by
paying discount points. These are a form of prepaid interest where
each point costs 1 percent of your loan balance – or $1,000 for
each $100,000 borrowed. In return, you can reduce your interest
rate by one-eighth to one-quarter of a percent for each point
purchased, up to about 3 points or so.

Buying points can make sense if you plan to own the home for
awhile – say a decade or so. You have to own it long enough for the
savings on the interest rate to outweigh the additional money you
paid in points.

The way you do this is, using a mortgage calculator, to figure
how much you would save each month on your mortgage payment by
paying points and determine how many months it would take for your
accumulated savings to exceed what you paid in points – that’s your
break-even point, roughly speaking.

Shop around

Finally, this is THE most basic rule. Different lenders will
offer you different rates – period. You can’t know what’s the
lowest rate you can get until you obtain estimates from a variety
different lenders.

Unfortunately, some lenders can be fairly crafty about
disguising their interest rate. They do this by offering what
appears to be a very low rate, but pad it with a bunch of add-on
fees that raise the rate you’ll effectively pay. These can include
steeper charges for origination fees, underwriting, insurance and a
whole bunch of fees that do little more than pad your bill.

The most straightforward way to compare offers from different
lenders is by comparing the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) from each,
as indicated on the Truth in Lending Disclosure form they are
required to provide when offering you a loan.

The APR reflects the total cost of borrowing, beyond just the
interest rate itself. Basically, it takes the all the lender fees
you’re paying (origination, points, document prep, etc.) and rolls
them into your interest rate. So if you’re borrowing $250,000 but
paying $10,000 in fees, the APR is whatever interest rate on a
$250,000 loan that would produce the same monthly payment as your
official interest rate would produce on $260,000 loan.

These are four of the main ways to get the lowest possible
mortgage rate. They all take some effort on your part, but in the
end you can be rewarded with some significant savings on your
mortgage costs.