I'm dealing with a regional bank. 

They can be expensive, but they are a lot more flexible than community, regional, and national banks.A good mortgage broker should be able to fill your entire capital stack - senior, mezz, pref equity, and common equity.

From the variety of answers, it's clear that it is personally subjective (as it should be) based on personal income, current cash flow from your portfolio and the historical track record of the region (the Great Recession provides us an excellent model). 

You will find certain regions of the country where the multiplexes are only built in the hood.

She sells 20+ homes a year of 500k or more. however if I worked at that office I’d have to compete in that region with her.

haha I still think South Bend is up and coming with the South Shore expansion, Notre Dame involvement, employment increases across multiple business categories throughout the entire region, and government support of a revival in downtown.

I recommend these cities not because of the casino but because of the new silver line extension and major development within the Seaport region. 

From what I hear from active participants (and read) for those doing deals in the DFW metro region, it is hard, but not impossible.

I live in Bay Area and am interested in NC (triad region) for buy-and-hold (rental) because that's where my extended family resides and Bay Area is too expensive to make numbers work out for me. 

The metro-sprawl has actually created more opportunities in the region.