Everyone likes bargains and getting a lower mortgage interest rate can save you a substantial amount of money over the life of your loan. There are many ways to go about ensuring that you pay the least amount of interest when you get a home mortgage.

You need to know your credit score.

Good credit is the key to not only getting a mortgage, but to getting the best interest rates available. Mortgage lenders like to reward borrowers that pay off their bills in a timely manner. Chances are if you have been timely with your other payments, you will be faithful to pay them back, so they can afford to take a risk on you and offer a lower interest rate.

Close any existing credit card accounts that you no longer use.

If you have several credit card accounts, they can affect the interest rate on your mortgage, even if they have a no balance. Lenders view open accounts as potential for debt, which adds a risk of them not getting their money back. To balance this risk, they will often charge you a slightly higher interest rate.

Lock in interest rates ahead of the time you close.

Once you have agreed on a low interest rate, require the lender to lock in that rate. Rates can fluctuate drastically in the time it takes for you to get your mortgage and that could mean paying a totally different interest rate than what was originally quoted.

Make the largest down payment you can afford.

Putting a down payment from your savings on your house, lowers the amount you plan to finance, lowering the interest you will pay over the life of the loan.

Shop Around.

You don’t have to work with the first lender that you approach. With the vast amount of online mortgage brokers, it is easy to compare offers and pick the company that offers you the lowest interest rate. Don’t be afraid to tell brokers that you are shopping around, or ask them if they can match the interest rates of another quote.

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Do you realise the best investment ideas can usually be the simplest? One of the secrets though is knowing where to go for the lowest risk but with the best return.

Try and disregard the current property downturn as historically house prices do increase quite dramatically over the years. You can still make a decent low risk investment out of property.

When looking for a good property investment remember the age old adage, LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. Some things never change and certainly location is the number one factor to consider.

Here in the UK house prices double every 10 years historically so you can make the most of your money by getting into the property market. Property investments are a great example of the simplest ideas being great investment ideas.

A quick example of a property investment, keeping figures simple. A house is bought for 150k and on average ten years later it should be worth around 300k.

On that example you should regularly shop around for the best deals on mortgage repayments as we could be talking about a lot of cash. Remember you always need to keep some cash available for the next good investment idea.

**If you want to learn how to reduce your mortgage by years you can use our mortgage overpayment calculator and be shocked at the result**

OK, back to the article now.

Try to get the best mortgage rate you can. Shop around and change if you have to as it could make a huge difference later on. The mortgage is a key factor in any property investment idea.

A lot of fledgling investors get caught out by the rises and falls of the property market. They buy in the peak then panic and hope to sell in the trough. This can be route one to the poor house doing it like this.

If simple is best then you need a simple formula to turn an investment idea into cold hard cash. If you are looking at property, here’s a simple formula…Get in on a trough, get the best location you can, get the best mortgage rate you can, get the best management team you can to manage rentals.

The best ideas are usually the simplest, with the wheel being one of the simplest and best. Don’t over complicate matters in your search for a good investment idea, after all simple is best. You can click this link for one of the best investment ideas.

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