How To Secure the Best Mortgage Rate for Your Dream Utah Home in Summer 2025

By Kyle Koller

Producing Branch Manager of UMortgage West - The #1 Producing Team at UMortgage

Summer is a busy season for homebuyers. The weather’s ideal, school is out, and many families take this opportunity to relocate. But with more buyers on the market, competition increases. If you’re not prepared, it’s easy to overpay, get locked into a higher rate, or miss out on the home you want.

If you’re buying a home in Utah this summer, don’t just survive the market—let’s outsmart it. With the right mortgage strategy, you can make a strong offer and stay within your budget. Here are my top three tips for buying a home in a competitive summer market:

1. Get fully underwritten. A standard pre-approval letter might seem sufficient, but in today’s market, it often falls short. To stand out in a competitive offer situation, getting fully underwritten before you begin house hunting gives you a greater advantage. It signals to the buyer that:

• You’re already approved by underwriting
• You can close quickly
• Your offer is dependable and low-risk

This step can give you a decisive edge between getting your offer accepted or losing out to someone else, even if their offer is similar or higher.

2. Time your offers like a pro. While May and June are known for bidding wars, things tend to calm down by late July and August. That’s when some sellers start to feel the pressure, especially if they’ve already purchased their next home, are tired of keeping the house show-ready, or want to wrap things up before school starts.

If you can be flexible with your time, waiting until later in the summer is when my clients land better deals. There’s usually less competition, and sellers are more eager to make a deal, especially if their home has been sitting on the market. That gives you more room to negotiate price or terms, potentially saving you thousands.

3. Use a temporary 2-1 buydown. If you’re concerned about locking in a high interest rate, a 2-1 buydown may be a helpful solution. These financing options allow you to temporarily reduce your interest rate for the first two years of your mortgage, making your monthly payments more manageable in the early stages of homeownership.

Here’s how it works:

• In the first year, your interest rate is reduced by 2% below the note rate.
• In the second year, the rate is reduced by 1%.
• From the third year onward, the full interest rate applies for the remaining life of the loan. Here, you’ll be ready to refinance or keep the house with flexibility.

This approach can ease the financial transition, especially if you anticipate that interest rates will decrease in the near future or expect your income to grow. In many cases, it is also possible to negotiate with the seller to cover the cost of the buydown as part of the offer.

Buying in the summer doesn’t have to mean overextending yourself or rushing into the wrong deal. I’ll walk you through your numbers, show you smart ways to structure your loan, and help you feel confident before you make that move.

Whether you’re just starting to look or already have a home in mind, we can run the numbers together and create a custom mortgage game plan. Book a quick call here: Schedule a 1:1 call with Kyle. Or just message me at (801) 687-2018 or kkoller@umortgage.com. I’m always happy to help.