Rekna

I am looking to begin investing and am looking for advice of how i want to invest and who I want to use as a broker.

Here is what i'm looking for. I'd like to start with an initial balance of around 1-2k and then add about $200 every month. This means brokers like etrade are out of the question because i'm not going to want to pay $12 every month to them (or more if i want to invest in multiple companies). I am not looking at moving money around a lot, basically put the money in and sit on it for 6 months to a year and only move it if I think i know somewhere better to invest or what i am investing in is doing poorly.

I don't need extreamly high return but i'd prefer to get a return of around 5% minimum, i do understand that there is risk involved and saying minimum implies no risk. I'm not really wanting no risk, i'm just saying i wouldn't invest in something that on average produced less than 5% return.

Finnally i don't want to lock up the money for years on end. My goal is to have a decent amount of money for a large downpayment on a house withing 5 to 10 years.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should try to invest my money into and who would be a good broker?