Locking Your Loan

Cambria Mortgage Locking Policy

Locking of your loan's interest rate is sometimes a tough decision. While we do our best to offer guidance on market changes, and where the markets may be heading, many forces play on mortgage rates everyday. What may have looked like great advice today, may seem like terrible advice tomorrow and visa versa. The lock decision is always up to you.

Note that our rate lock policies conform to industry standards, and are what you will see with almost all mortgage lenders.

WHEN CAN YOU LOCK AN INTEREST RATE

(A) For all loans, we must have a full application that has been initially reviewed, along with at least some minimum documentation.  For example, Pay stubs, W2's, and bank statements, AND your application must have gone through at least initial computerized underwriting, and receive an OK (Accept).

PURCHASE Loans: You have completed (A) when you receive your Pre-Approval Letter. From there, can only lock your loans interest rate once you have a fully signed and executed purchase agreement on the exact house you are buying.  Once you have a signed agreement, you can lock anytime from right then, until about 10-days before closing.

REFINANCE LOANS: You must have completed (A). From there, once you say yes, go ahead with my loan, you can lock anywhere from right then until about 10-days before any closing.

HOW TO LOCK

Call your Loan Officer. Verbal communications with your Loan Officer is always best.

Text, E-Mail, and voicemail lock requests, while accepted, may not always be received in a timely manner, and therefore add risk that the market may change between your rate quote and lock confirmation.

Once we receive your request to lock, every effort will be made to execute the lock immediately.

A text message, e-mail message, or voicemail message sent by you requesting a rate lock IS NOT A GUARANTEE of the rate until the lock request has been seen, submitted, executed, and confirmed by Cambria Mortgage or the investor if a brokered loan.

A phone call to your Loan Officer during lock desk hours, who can request the lock while you on the phone, is the best, and preferred method to ensure your lock request.

LOCK CONFIRMATION

Once a lock request has been submitted by your Loan Officer, it may be anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to see an actual confirmation, meaning the lock is accepted and confirmed.

Due to the nature of how mortgage rates work, a request to lock by a client is not any guarantee of the quoted rate until the actual lock confirmation is given by the Cambria Mortgage lock desk, or in the case of brokered loan, until we receive lock confirmation from the investor.

The vast majority of the time, a lock request is executed and confirmed with no issues. The mortgage rate market is constantly changing all day, everyday. While most days the rate quoted in the morning is valid all day, we can sometimes see multiple rate changes in a single day. We can never guarantee the markets won't move between the time we quote you, a lock request is received, and the actual lock confirmation. 

If the requested lock is not able to be executed for any reason, we will tell you as soon as possible. Unfortunately, there is no way to go back in time to lock a rate that is no longer available.

LOCK DESK HOURS

Cambria Mortgage lock desk is open 9:00 am - 6:00 pm CST Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays for all in house loans.

Loans where we operate as a broker may have different hours.

Daily interest rates are generally made available no later than 9:00 AM CST, but this is not guaranteed.

RATE LOCK PERIODS

Mortgage interest rate locks come with different rate lock periods. This means from the day you lock your loan, you must close within that set number of days.

Common options are are available with 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90-day lock periods. Long-term locks, which generally means longer than 90-days, and commonly used for new construction are also available, but usually require 1% of the loan amount up-front at the time of locking, and this extra cost goes only for the privilege of doing a long term lock.

INTEREST RATE VS RATE LOCK DAYS

The longer a rate lock period you need can effect your interest rate. Due to the lenders risk of the unknown the more days you need from lock to close, your rate will be potentially higher.  For example, the most common locks are 30-days or 45-days, and this is what you commonly see quoted.  A 75-day or 90-day lock could be maybe 0.25% higher, and very long term locks, like 120-days or longer, even higher yet.  

LOCK EXTENSIONS

Lock extensions may be needed if for some reason you can not close as anticipated. There is a cost for a lock extension, charged to you. This cost will vary based on the number of days needed, which your Loan Officer will go over with you if needed. Understand it is always cheaper to correctly lock on the number of days needed at the beginning.

LOCK EXPIRATIONS

If your lock does 'expire' - You are under "worst case" rates plus a small fee for the next 30-days.  Meaning if rates go up, you pay the higher rate.  If rates go down, you do not get better than the previous lock until at least 30-days have passed.