Consistency and quality are key.You may want to bring in a guest speaker for the first few get togethers. maybe a banker, a real estate attorney, an asset protection attorney, a tax attorney or some high end specialist who isn't involved directly in mentoring real estate agents so there isn't a conflict of interest.

Then Europe bankers announced in 8 or 9/2008 that they were lending on overpriced property. 

You need an experienced mortgage banker who works with a Title Officer to get the title cleaned up.

No banker is going to risk getting fired and going to jail to make sure you get a loan. 

For me I connected with a banker who was knowledgeable, willing to go to bat for me, and had products that will be beneficial to my business, plus was authentic and we communicated well.

At that point, the bankers will be the best people to help find properties.What are you doing to plan for this possibility?

Southern bankers Hill is part of this zip code as well. 

I was the winner bidder at some, then I got a letter later that my bid did not meet the reserve price and rejected.In the process, I met quite a few people into bank REO auctions, including a discussion with the banker at my winning auction where they processed my information for a mortgage after I won my bid and was approved for a $180K mortgage walking out of the auction.

I was a commercial banker / lender for 20 years  

That is the exact reason why I pay ~$100/mo from personal cash flows to pay down the principal fasterOne of my banker buddies made this remark the other day, a ship with lots of gold will eventually either sink or be robbed