Dilemma: Question for lenders and investors with multiple lenders

[Michael Woodward]

I have a question for the highly experienced lenders and investors that have multiple active lenders.  I've got a really good lender (bank) that gives me market rates (4% range) for my flipping operations. I'm extremely happy with the service they provide but as my business grows, I'm bumping against the lending ceiling they've provided.  They are willing to increase my funding but that's pretty much limited to once a year and is usually a relatively small increment.  I want to be in a financial position where I can act on any good investment (or business) that I find but that means having more that one lender.  I've always felt that I need to be 100% transparent with my current lender but I'm wondering if that's really the expectation in the lending circles.

I've heard of people that have many businesses running at the same time that I'm sure required many different investors/lenders to fund but I don't see how it's possible to bring in a new lender without losing the primary lender because they don't like their perceived risk. I want to do this right, I just don't know what's "right" (acceptable) in this situation.

So, the question is.... If I have multiple lenders, is it necessary/required/recommended that I let each of them know exactly what I'm doing with the other lender(s)?  Does everything need to show up on the balance sheet?