Shawn Gerhardson Minnesotas Preferred Lenders Blog

Buying a Home with a Mortgage? A Quick Guide to Closing Costs and What to Expect Whether you’re just starting to shop for a new home or you’ve already found the perfect new house and you’re ready to submit an offer, if you’re taking out a mortgage loan to cover some of the home’s purchase price y...

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – November 24, 2014 Last week’s scheduled economic news included the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, Housing Starts and Existing Home Sales. FOMC meeting minutes were released along with weekly Freddie Mac mortgage rates and weekly jobless claims. ...

USDA Mortgages: Take Advantage of These Low-Rate Mortgage Loans to Buy a New Home Are you thinking about buying a home in a rural or suburban area? If so, you’ll want to take a look at the United States Department of Agriculture’s mortgage programs as you may qualify for them. In today’s blog pos...

FOMC Minutes: Economy Growing, Housing Lags Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting held October 28 and 29 were released Wednesday. The report suggests that the U.S. economy continues to improve, although the annual inflation rate remains near 1.50 percent and short of the com...

Three Key Tips to Help Ensure Your Mortgage Pre-Approval Isn’t Declined If you’re thinking about buying a new home and using a mortgage to help cover some of the purchase costs, it’s a good idea to get an initial pre-approval from your lender before putting in an offer. In today’s blog post we’ll...

The Down Payment: Everything You Need to Know About Your Down Payment on a New Home Whether you’re just starting to shop for a new home or you’ve found the perfect house and are crafting your offer, if you’re taking out a mortgage to help cover your real estate purchase you’ve likely given some t...

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – November 17, 2014 Last week’s housing related news was lean, with no scheduled reports released other than Freddie Mac’s primary mortgage market survey. We’ll start with some good news. The University of Michigan / Thompson-Reuters Consumer Sentiment In...

Save Money on Your Home Energy Costs This Winter in Just Three Easy Steps It doesn’t matter if you heat your home with electricity, natural gas or some other energy source; prices continue to rise and that means increased heating costs for most of us. In today’s blog post we’ll share three easy w...

Refinancing Your Mortgage: Understanding the Various Types of Refinancing Whether you’ve been thinking about ways that you can draw on your home equity to fund a renovation project or you want to take advantage of low interest rates before they rise again, refinancing your mortgage is an excellen...

How to Use a Mortgage Calculator to Determine Your Monthly Payments, Interest and More   Are you thinking about using a mortgage to buy a new home? Buying your own piece of local real estate is a major financial investment and one that can require some pretty complex math to fully understand. In ...