Also, would love to understand how much proximity to downtown affects rates. 

Browse many attorney's  and compare their prices and fee structure.

It turned out the whole thing was a bit of a scam - the "lender" took a huge up front fee ($4,000) to do the deal - so it turned out they weren't really the lender... they were acting more like a broker...while it wasn't said this way, it appeared to be "after you pay us $4,000, we'll try to go and find you a loan."  

This includes rental income, which is typically taxed at a flat rate of 30% unless you elect to treat the income as "effectively connected" to a U.S. trade or business, which allows for graduated tax rates and deductions. 

@Eric Lahoda, is it typical in your market to charge fees for those items separately?

Interestingly, I ALWAYS paid a broker who brought me a good deal his FULL commission rate.  

Rates tend to be higher, since these aren't "conventional" loans that are going to be bought by Fannie or Freddie. 

My inclination is there will be a race to the bottom on fees with flat fee and a' la carte services becoming more prominent  while larger brokerages create their own "MLS ecosystems".  

HiWe purchased an CA investment property when rate are at 8.25%.

The article predicts in 2025 the real estate market will become more active by lowering interest rates.