
When to Lock Your Mortgage Rate: A Virginia Buyer’s Guide to Timing, Lock Periods, and Float-Down Options
A practical guide to when to lock mortgage rate.

A practical guide to when to lock mortgage rate.

Only a few Virginia loan paths are truly $0 down, and the rest shrink your cash to close through assistance, gifts, and credits. Duane Buziak, a mortgage broker with access to 500+ wholesale lenders, breaks down seven routes, including the VA loan, so you can match zero down payment mortgage programs to your situation before you apply.

Closing costs on a Virginia mortgage typically run about 2% to 5% of the loan amount. This guide answers how much are closing costs on a mortgage with a line-by-line breakdown, a worked example, Virginia-specific charges, how each loan program changes the math, and practical ways to lower your cash to close.

For many borrowers, a Virginia mortgage broker is better than going directly to a bank because a broker like Duane Buziak compares hundreds of wholesale lenders instead of a single shelf. This 2026 comparison covers the honest cases where a bank still wins, a side-by-side table, a worked dollar example, and how to compare offers using a soft credit pull.

A practical guide to does a mortgage broker compare to Movement Mortgage.

This guide explains how to get pre approved for home loan financing in Virginia through six clear steps, from gathering income documents and bank statements to receiving a pre-approval letter sellers take seriously. It also shows where a soft credit pull option lets you begin without a hard inquiry, and why pre-approval carries more weight than pre-qualification.