Shawn Gerhardson Minnesotas Preferred Lenders Blog

Understanding Title Insurance and How It Impacts Your Mortgage Loan When you buy a home, you will be given a title to your new property. A title is a legal document that proves you own the property, and in most cases the title excludes other parties from making an ownership claim. However, not al...

Turned Down for a Mortgage? What to Do if You are Declined – and How to Get Second Opinion If you have been declined for a mortgage, you may think that buying that new home is out of reach. However, there are ways to turn a rejection into an approval and to find a more accessible loan. Here are j...

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – Sept 22, 2014 Last week’s economic news largely concerned the Federal Reserve’s FOMC meeting statement and a post-meeting conference given by Fed Chair Janet Yellen. The FOMC statement indicated that the Fed continued its wind-down of Treasury and mortg...

Federal Open Market Committee, Fed Chair: No Rush to Raise Rates Wednesday’s customary post-meeting statement issued by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the Federal Reserve provided some relief to investors and analysts concerned that the Fed may soon raise its target federal funds rat...

Considering a Vacation Home? Six Tips for Buying a House or Condo for Relaxation and Vacation Use If you’ve just returned from the vacation of a lifetime, you probably wish that wonderful time never had to end. When you buy a vacation home or condo, you can guarantee that you have an escape that ...

Looking to Pay Back Your Mortgage Faster? Three Reasons to Consider Switching to Bi-weekly Payments While there are differing schools of thought when it comes to whether or not a person should pay off a mortgage before the loan term ends, there may be some benefits to making payments on a bi-week...

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – Sept 15, 2014 Last week’s housing related economic reports were slim, but an unexpected increase in weekly jobless claims gained attention. Analysts calmed concerns by noting that last week’s reading of 315,000 new jobless claims was not far removed fro...

It’s Not Just Car Storage: How to Transform Your Garage into a Brand New, Highly Usable Space In some homes, garages are used only for car storage. They may appear to be bare and without real functional use for homeowners. However, other garages may be an envy of the neighborhood – they may have ...

FICO Scores and Your Mortgage: How to Bump Your FICO Score to Secure a Better Mortgage Rate Is your credit score holding you back from getting the best rate on your next mortgage? The good news is that there are actions that you can take to increase your credit score and improve the interest rate...

FHA Home Loans: How to Pre-apply and Get Approved Before Making a Home Purchase Commitment If you’re in the market for your first mortgage, the Federal Housing Administration may be able to help you. Thanks to the FHA home loan program, you can apply for loan approval before you’ve found a home t...