Metropolitan Title has an indy office.

In Georgia, the local tax commissioner office (separate from the tax assessor's office) handles collection and tax sales. 

When I was in Norfolk they had a housing assistance office where they would help Sailors find units for rent from their own dedicated list.

Have you tried reaching out to your states office of financial institutions.

Real estate agents and loan officers can be highly compensated just the same (they have strong lobbies) and their industries set it up so they are paid commissions (which I don’t think is a dirty word), but the difference is that the public just views those products or services more as an inevitable necessity compared to insurance.  

We advertised it as a "bonus room/ office" and I think that helped attract the right applicants (they were not expecting a 3 bedroom apartment and then arriving to find out it was only 2 beds with an awkward bonus room).  

I looked up the engineer's resume and their "experience" was less than five years of designing new commercial steel office buildings for the suburbs.

Your loan officer should be able to explain to you the pros and cons of each option specific to you scenario but general guidance typically says to go conventional if you can.I'm happy to answer any other questions you have about both programs.

He did make an appointment and go into the local office, and they were very helpful.

Sounds cliche but always best to reach out to a trustworthy loan officer and fill out an application because there are too many things to look at before determining how much you can qualify for.