Kept the relationship with that lender ever since.Good luck and welcome to BP!

Does anyone have a good experience with a national brokerage or local brokerage that has relationships with franchises and other businesses?

I'm looking for my first buy and hold property and am wondering what kind of things/relationships I should have in place prior to making my first purchase.

I decided on Charlotte after conducting a ton of research on the top markets in the US, and taking a variety of factors into consideration:Home ValuesAverage Rent / Income ratiosUnemployment RatesCrimePopulationEconomic GrowthNet Migrationand most importantly, where we'll be happyI started out with Bigger Pockets own excellent 2017 Market Analysis, and added my own numbers to help me give more weight to the factors I felt were most important.

They are all great condos in newer buildings and excellent locations in the Belltown neighborhood.  

I have a little over $3,000 saved with excellent credit - are there many loan options for people in my situation?

Latitude Property Management (http://chooselatitude.com/) has excellent reviews and is run by @Neal Collins who is active here on BP. 

I again still think it depends on the wording and the relationship such as the loan officer and underwriter.

There IS an existing one, I’d be interested in starting a relationship with the owner.

Also sold some that way, too.The best rate I get is 6% and I have excellent credit, references and larger down payments.  4% is just too low.