Commercial Lender for small multiunit in Bay Area

[Steven D.]

Hi BP Family, 

I'm located in California and I'm working on my first small MF property. I've done some SF, but are definitely virgin with MF. Looking for a good commercial lender to work on this deal and potentially future projects as well. Would love to get some input on this process from the community: 

1. Is it better to work with a local lender, or distant relationship is no issues here? 

2. How to decide on which lender you should send your private sensitive (tax, income) information to? 

3. Is it better to work with a Broker or directly with a lender? Hope to hear from both sides. 

4. What are some favorite lenders that BPers like to work with? 

Gonna stop the questionnaire here before we loose all the readers. Thank you everyone in advance !