Mortgage rates have remained stubbornly high over the last few years. Still, you can lower the mortgage rate a lender offers you by as much as almost three-fourths of a percentage point by increasing your credit score. In the best-case scenario, that could save you more than $55,000 in interest over the life of a $300,000 home loan and reduce your monthly payment by $155. (Based on the interest rate difference from the lowest to the highest credit tier on a loan with 20% down and one discount point, which ...

Investing in real estate can be profitable, but getting started — at least financially — is often a challenge. That’s because some mortgage programs won’t allow you to purchase investment properties or homes you don’t intend to live in. To make matters more complicated, you might also need to use future rental income to qualify for your loan, which is another thing many traditional loan programs don’t allow. Fortunately, there are types of investment property loans that can help. Read about the best mortga ...