Shawn Gerhardson Minnesotas Preferred Lenders Blog

Self Employed and Seeking a Mortgage? How to Ensure That Your Lender Knows You’re Able to Pay Whether you’re a freelance web designer who spends their days working from a coffee shop or a small-business entrepreneur with a team of staff, if you’re a self-employed individual and you’re thinking ab...

Closing Costs: Understanding What It Costs to Close on a Home and What You Can Expect to Pay If you’re in the process of buying a new home, you’ve likely heard the term “closing costs” in regards to the many different fees and taxes that you’ll be required to pay during the purchase process. In t...

Shopping Around: How to Compare Mortgages from Different Lenders or Underwriters Buying a home is a major financial transaction, especially if you’re going to need mortgage financing to help cover the purchase cost. The only way to know if you’re getting the best deal on a mortgage is to shop aro...

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – October 6, 2014 Last week’s economic news included multiple reports on housing and the labor sector. The good news is that job markets appear to be stronger, with new jobless claims and the national unemployment rate lower. Unfortunately, housing contin...

Looking for a Value-adding Upgrade? Why Residential Solar Panels Are Becoming a Popular Renovation If you’re looking for a home upgrade that can add resale value to your home while paying itself off over time, look no further than a solar panel setup. In the past few years, the cost of installing...

Setting Your Budget: How to Analyze Your Finances to Determine How Much Mortgage You Can Afford Whether you’re buying a home for the first time or you’ve decided it’s about time that you upgraded to a larger, more expansive house, if you’re making a real estate purchase you’ll need to be aware of...

Case-Shiller: July Home Prices Cool Across U.S. The stifling heat of July did not penetrate U.S. housing markets according to the S&P Case-Shiller 10-and 20 City Home Price Index reports. San Francisco’s sizzling home prices dropped in July and posted its lowest price gains since 2012. According ...

Selling to Millennials: Three High-Tech Upgrades That Will Increase Your Home’s Appeal to Young Buyers   Millennials are finally starting to enter the real estate market after delaying home purchases for several years. With a completely new client base looking for homes, it is time to start makin...

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – Sept 29, 2014 Last week’s economic news included several housing-related reports that provided mixed results with lower than expected sales of previously owned homes and higher than expected sales of new homes. The FHFA also released its House Price rep...

Five Small Signs That Can Indicate Much Bigger Problems with a Home It’s not uncommon for homebuyers to recount horror stories about properties that appeared to be fine at first glance, but were actually hiding very expensive problems. If you fail to do your due diligence, you might find your dre...