One of the stress points for home buyers is knowing when to lock-in to their mortgage rate.

By all means,  make your own decision, in collaboration with your loan professional and your real estate agent.  But as you do so, here are a few ideas that I hope will add a little something toward making the process work better for you.

Last week was an example of volatility in mortgage rates.  They fell on Monday and Tuesday, then jumped up on Wednesday and Thursday.

Several factors contributed to the bumpy ride.  For starters the Unemployment claims fell, and Leading Economic Indicators rose. On top of that inflation readings are modest.

As a home buyer trying to make a good decision, and manage your own stress, what should you do?  In the spirit of Keeping It Simple, let me offer three things that are very basic but will help you avoid what is not doable.  You can “drive yourself a little crazy” trying to nail the perfect interest rate decision, but often the better part of wisdom is knowing what is truly “controllable” and what is not.

And that is my first point.  One key strategy in managing the psychology of uncertainty is acknowledging and accepting what is knowable and what is unknowable about a given situation. So, the first thing is to acknowledge that there is no “perfect” timing, and there is no absolute way of ensuring that your locked -in rate won’t be better – or worse – next day, or next week.  The stress comes from trying to anticipate what is unknowable.

The second thing we can do is determine our time frame.  Most people can’t live comfortably with open-ended uncertainty.  So determine your own time line for getting that rate locked.  You can try to guess this or that movement of rates, but that may add a great deal of stress to the already stressful process of buying your home.  And listen carefully to the insights of the professionals you are working with both from the mortgage side as well as the real estate agent side.

The third thing you can do is be ready to act rapidly.  What enables you to act with speed?  Doing the “due diligence” and making decisions on what your timing needs to be.  So much of the home buying process can be made easier by having a plan.  After you have gotten the details of your program worked out with your loan professional, and you have gotten all of your own financial arrangements worked out, be ready to act decisively.

And as always, I urge you to be quality and integrity conscious in your choice of both loan officer and real estate agent.  Even though you can’t know some things in advance, it is vital to be advised on what you can know, and that is why you should be discerning in your choice of professional help.