How can I avoid paying for PMI?

NO, but yes... If you don't put 20% down, you have to deal with Mortgage Insurance somehow. The most common way is with standard monthly mortgage insurance, which can eventually go away. You can also buy out of monthly mortgage insurance by paying essentially 3-years worth of monthly mortgage up-front in cash. We can also do lender paid mortgage insurance, where we again take essentially 3-years worth of monthly mortgage insurance costs, calculate it out, and then "hide" the PMI cost in a higher rate. Finally, you can sometimes do two loans to avoid it, which is an 80% first mortgage with no PMI, and then typically a 10% second mortgage. This option used to be very popular, but for many reasons, has fallen out of favor. Primarily because while you avoid the PMI, you are not avoiding the risk to lenders with this approach, so many add an LLPA (rate adjustment) to the main loan, negating much of the benefit of trying to avoid monthly PMI, which again, can eventually go away. VA loans have no PMI... So if you are US Military, the VA loan is a great options. I lend in MN WI IA SD and ND. Find me at VAMortgageMN.com, Cambria Mortgage, NMLS 274132