With all the hype about historically low interest rates, you may decide that now is the right time to start searching for homes for sale in Charlotte, NC, or Orlando, FL. And that makes sense: the lower your interest rate on your mortgage, the more money you’ll save over the life of your loan. Just a one-point difference can mean saving thousands of dollars over 15 or 30 years. So you may be shocked if you prequalify for a mortgage and find that your quoted rate is much higher than what the lender advertised as possible. The reality is that the lowest advertised interest rate may not be anywhere close to the rate for which you can qualify.