Have you been thinking about buying a second home, retirement home or cabin in Minnesota? It is a BUYER’s market right now which means you can and usually will be a great deal on your choice of homes. The Land Of 10,000 Lakes has alot to offer but here are a few things to consider when making your decision.

1. Know what you can afford. Financing remains tight so you will need to have everything in order and have a credit score over 740 to get the lowest mortgage interest rates. Talk to a reputable mortgage lender BEFORE you start looking – I recommend the MN Home Loan Partners .
2. Pick a location in MN that you love. Deals abound just about everywhere – even on some of Minnesota’s lakefront properties. Do you want water, winter activities, antique shopping, restaurants, close to Minneapolis / St Paul or in the woods? One word of warning – stay away from developments that have not been finished or have fallen into foreclosure. You could run into lawsuits or issues with associations.
3. Drive a Hard Bargain. Don’t be afraid to make an aggressive offer – most buyers will at least look at your offer and if need be give you a counter offer. But when you find a property you like DO make an offer and do it quickly. We are starting to see multiple offers on the best properties and especially properties in high demand areas. Either you or your REALTOR should determine what similar properties have sold for recently and then bid BELOW that but be ready to close quickly and don’t have alot of contingencies if any (although I do ALWAYS recommend a professional home inspection). You can get away with offering 10% below the list price or 20% if you want to be really aggressive but I’d expect a counter offer. Go low – you’d rather start low and meet in the middle than offer too much and then wonder if you could have gotten it for less.
4. ALWAYS use a professional REALTOR.. A buyer’s agent is legally bound to represent your best interest in any transaction and this means to get your the BEST price and terms possible.

If you want to know more or feel it’s time to start looking please give me a call!

Jen McKinnon
Realtor / Investor
MN Real Estate Team
612.384.1073
jen[at]mnrealestateteam[dot]com