Shawn Gerhardson Minnesotas Preferred Lenders Blog

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – February 23, 2015 Last week’s housing related reports included the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Housing Market Index for February, The Commerce Department’s report on Housing Starts for January and Freddie Mac’s weekly report on average ...

Selling Your Home in 2015? Boost Your Resale Value with These Three Inexpensive Renovations To get top dollar for your home, renovations may be necessary. However, some renovations can prove costly and they don’t always add value to your home. Here are three inexpensive renovations that are sure ...

Fed Not in a Hurry to Raise Rates: FOMC Meeting Minutes Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting held January 27 and 28 were released on Wednesday. According to the minute’s transcript, it appears that Fed policymakers are in no hurry to raise the target federal funds rate. Mem...

Saving Up for Your First Home? Our Guide to Finding Ways to Save Your Down Payment Faster If your goal is to purchase a home, you may find that it’s challenging to save up enough money for your down payment. While this is something that many first time home buyers struggle with, it is by no means...

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – February 16, 2015 Last week’s economic news included an index of labor market conditions provided by the Federal Reserve, a report on small business sentiment, and a report from the Labor Department on job openings. Weekly jobless claims, Freddie Mac’s ...

DIY Lovers: ‘Greenify’ Your Home with These Three Eco-friendly Home Improvement Projects Are you a homeowner who is searching for ways to make your home a bit more eco-friendly? Equipping your home with “green” improvements can save a substantial amount of energy and money, especially over the lo...

Mortgage Refinancing: How to Ensure a ‘Re-Fi’ Makes the Most Sense for Your Financial Situation Refinancing your mortgage can make good financial sense, as long as you are doing it for the right reasons. Before considering a refinance, it’s worth spending some time to assess what your financial g...

Three Excellent Reasons to Buy a Home So You Can Get out of the “Renting Rut” Renting a home is a good option for some, but buying a home just might be the best thing for you. When you rent a home, you send money to someone else every month in exchange for knowing that you can call on your landlo...

Freelancing in 2015? Three Tips for How to Secure a Mortgage if You’re a Self-Employed Entrepreneur If you are self-employed, either as a freelancer or as the owner of your own business, your income can fluctuate greatly from year to year. That can make it difficult to get approved for a mortgage...

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – Feburary 9, 2015 Last week’s economic news included construction spending, which fell shy of expectations but exceeded the prior month’s spending, and several consumer and labor-related reports. The details: Mortgages More Accessible: Fed Survey A Feder...