Lenders frequently offer lower interest rates for faster closes (since quicker closings save hedging costs and have lower cancellation rates).

When choosing a rate hold period for your mortgage (e.g., 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, etc.), it’s often necessary to:

• compare your closing date to a particular rate hold expiry date, in order to determine the shortest rate hold period that applies, or
• determine how long to hold off on submitting an application, in order to qualify for a shorter rate hold (and a better rate).

Here’s a quick and dirty mortgage rate hold calculator that occasionally comes in handy.

With it, you can determine:

• Which rate hold period applies to a given closing date (assuming you apply today)
• When to submit an application in order to qualify for a specific rate hold
• The number of days between any two dates.

Typically, mortgage planners do mental calculations to determine which rate hold applies to a client’s scenario. One thing that’s not easy to do in your head is figure out the weekday on which a given rate hold period ends. That matters because mortgages can’t usually close on weekends or holidays.

As a result, we’ve coded this calculator so that if a rate hold expiry date falls on a Saturday or Sunday, it shows the date of the preceding Friday.

This calculator does not factor in holidays, so keep those in mind.

---

Rob McLister, CMT