A rate "lock" or "commitment" is a lender's promise to lock in a specific interest rate and a specific number of points for you for a certain period during your application process. This saves you from working through your whole application process and finding out at the end that the interest rate has risen higher.
Rate lock periods can be various lengths of time, between 15 to 60 days, with the longer spans usually costing more. The lender may agree to freeze an interest rate and points for a longer span of time, like sixty days, but in exchange, the rate (and sometimes points) will be more than with a rate lock of a shorter period.
There are other ways to get a low rate, besides agreeing to a shorter rate lock period. A bigger down payment will get you a reduced interest rate, because you will have a good deal of equity from the beginning. You can pay points to bring down your rate for the loan term, meaning you pay more up front. To many people, this makes sense and is a good deal..
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