Decoding the Mysterious Mortgage Points Game  Does it make sense
to pay "points" upfront to lower your interest rate?   My
husband and I are in the process of buying our first house. The
first step, our real estate agent told us, was to get pre-
approved for a mortgage. That way, once we find a house that we
like and want to make an offer, the sellers will take us
seriously.  So we called a lender, gave her all of our personal
information, from the debts we owe (student loans) to our
incomes, and a few hours later she E-mailed us a big packet of
information containing our pre-approval. It all seemed very
efficient -- except I could hardly understand a word of the
documents. First of all, there were two different sets of them,
one with points and one without points. What were points? Did we
want them or not? And why would the mortgage industry invent
such a confusing concept -- or why did we let them?  I
immediately twittered about my frustration. Chris Jones, a real
estate expert at the Chris Jones Group in Le