Finding a portfolio lender

[Aaron Macken]

Hey everyone!

I'm looking to get my first deal underway, and what better place to start than with getting pre-approved for a mortgage loan. 

I've read that one issue people have is getting more than 5-10 loans at a time. (I'm assuming this is from bigger banks like chase, wells fargo ect). But a workaround for this is to get paired up with a portfolio lender.

Are these portfolio lenders just small banks that need to do loans in order to make money? What are the pros and cons of going with a smaller bank to do loans (aside from the obvious number of loans that you can get)

Your feedback is much appreciated!

-Aaron