Once most agents get licensed , they work for a typical agency, does anymore have experience working for a company such as New Western(investor agent), seen post about them but seems to be outdated would like some feed back and opinion from you guys?

Even getting something like this reported to the credit bureaus or to a collections agency can be a bit of a challenge.

It is a geographically strapped area south of San Jose/Silicon Valley, with very limited and poor housing supply coupled with an unpopular local planning agency that is not customer service oriented because of restrictions on population density and water resources, etc.At this point in our lives, we cannot just pick up and move our jobs to another state. 

3/ is it recommended to go via mortgage brokers vs a standard agency (say, Chase/BofA, etc)4/ the area we are looking at is Central /South NJ,.

Without a shift at that level, most of the major changes Beshear would be in favor of supporting will be hard to pass.There could be ripple effects into the rental market if social service agencies see changes in their funding levels from the state. 

Shop around by calling various local agencies to see how much they charge.

Having a license allows you access to MLS, ability to rep yourself at purchase and exit, ability to get referral fees legally, knowledge and training from your broker on agency, contracts, etc and the list goes on.

I was able to find a bank but did realize none of the mainstream banks offer any of these loans. 

Maybe that’s uncommon where you live but at any given time the streets and back roads around my area has plenty of signs from RE agencies that are not in the homes front yard .  

This can be, property management firms, real estate broker agency's, real estate data companies, construction companies, lending institutions, appraising companies, etc.