One of the first steps in buying a home is choosing a lender and getting pre-qualified for a loan. In Minnesota, there are a lot of financing options for home buyers and I can recommend quite a few of them. If you want to do it by yourself, we can still help out by giving you 5 things that you should look for in picking the lender to work with.

1. The loan should have a low and FIXED interest rate. The importance of this is that it makes it easier for you to gauge how much you would be paying in the future. This means you can set your budget to spend on buying a home easier.

2. Low monthly payment. The lower the payment, the more money you would have in your pocket or to put into a savings account. Remember that the cost of living could increase in the near future and you do not want to end up borrowing money to make ends meet.

3. No high closing costs. This could range from 1 to 8 percent of the price of the property although the average is between 2 to 3 percent. The higher the closing cost, the less appealing the loan would be to you or to any other buyer.

4. No teaser interest rates. Teaser is the term used for low interest rates in the beginning but would balloon in the long run. You do not want this especially if you are not sure of how financially stable you would be in the coming years what with the volatile economy.

5. The option for down payment assistance programs. These programs are designed to help low-income to moderate-income first-time home buyers.

If you want to learn more about finding the right lender, don’t hesitate to contact us and we would be happy to help you out.