When to use a mortgage broker?

[Zack Parker]

I have a few questions in regards to this topic. Here's some context to my situation before jumping straight into the questions:

• Looking for my first property (duplex, triplex or quad). My wife and I will live in one of the units.
• My wife and I both have credit over 750
• We have money for a down payment
• I've been an entrepreneur for the past 5 years so my income is next to nothing. However, my wife makes a good salary.

My problem is that I'm not sure if our income is enough to qualify for a loan to get a duplex, triplex, quad in CA. 

1) Is it worth it to use a mortgage broker to help us find a lender that will lend to us based off of our actual income? Can a broker actually help me or does my income automatically screw us? I have a friend that is a mortgage broker, but I don't want to contact him and get his hopes up unless we're actually going to use him.

2) Do you need to get a loan from a lender or mortgage broker in the market in which you are looking to buy? Or can they loan come from somewhere else in the state?

Thanks for the help. I look forward to learning more about this.

Zack