In fact, a couple of recent studies have shown that working with a broker typically saves about $10,000 on a residential mortgage.

HELOCs are much tricker than a closed end second - they don't typically allow you to close in an LLC and they are full doc qualification, meaning your FICO, employment history, income, DTI etc all come into play.

They typically won't agree to that. 

PM fees typically run 8-10% of monthly rent for a duplex plus often a leasing fee of 50-100% of one month's rent when placing new tenants.

How do you typically handle this?

Typically these repairs are mostly cosmetics.

Not sure what 3rd party they use, I typically use transunion smartmove. 

I'm not pondering should you or shouldn't ya, I think your more then capable of sorting that out for yourself, I'm just gonna stick to what stands out to me as best "how-to". 

I'm not showing up with a standard set of interview questions to ask them or anything of the sort.

Local banks typically offer lower interest rates but might require a solid track record and detailed financials.