A lender should try to earn your business by the loan package they offer and wanting you to move forward with them because you can't pass up on their rates/down payment/fees/hard money extension limits, etc, not asking you to give them money to confirm you really want to buy a property. 

Once you find a lender that looks to have the best loan package, you could start moving deeper into it such as preapproval and trying to negotiate some of the costs etc.  

I have been putting together a package for the challenge including the comps that I feel are more appropriate.

I just got a clear to close on package of 7 rental refis, mixture of Elgin/South Elgin properties and they all appreciated fairy well across the board.

When I received my first appointment and reviewed the documents I realized that although I could explain the documents to the borrowers, I was unsure which documents in the refinance package needed notarization/acknowledgement.I know every signature does not need to be notarized but how do I determine which do?

I looked into it, and the mentorship package is pretty steep.

Bernard,I suspect that you will have more luck insuring this property with a commercial policy (business owners or package). 

The reason the market crashed last time is because banks got way too lenient on their lending requirements and then would package up those mortgages and sell them to investors.

After every seminar, each presenter was selling a different type of package, All different forms of training/mentoring.If I’m being totally honest with myself, I wanted to sign up for every single one of them.

@Frank Rolfe is incredibly thorough and does a fantastic job packaging and delivering information throughout the entirety of the long weekend.