So what you might want to look for is a small local or regional bank who does what they call portfolio lending.  

Definitely great to meet a contractor up in the Lakes Region. 

Given what happened in the great recession, many established banks like 5th 3rd who are looking to continue gobbling up smaller banks benefit more from higher deposit accounts and quality performing loans on their books.If too many people in the region are taking the same approach, the bank may be closing the teller window on risk a bit. 

I'd recommend developing a relationship with your local bank that knows your area as they will be most comfortable with properties you are looking at and will likely work with you better than a larger bank or brokerage - this is assuming the product you are interested in is catered to more local investors and not the regional and national guys.At the core of it, for multifamily you'll want to be sure the DSCR is adequate.

They will drop the price approx 10% after 30-60 days on the market (Seems to vary a bit by region and asset manager) .  

If there is anyone who has experience in this particular region I would love to talk to you and learn from your experience and see if I can help in any way.

So far that's worked quite well (and I don't plan to stop), but I feel limited in terms of the markets I can invest in with those people.I now want to broaden my search into different markets, but when looking at the entire country, I get a bit overwhelmed (and end up making no decision at all because I have way too many options).This is a relationship business, and I'm confident enough in my networking and relationship building abilities wherever I go, but I'm stuck in terms of the geographic regions to focus on.How do you choose your out of state areas to invest in?

I love investing in the Midwest or what some people call the Great Lakes region.

. ~$100K/unit for multifamily is a bit high for the region, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Also try small local and regional banks, skip the big national banks.75%LTV is fairly common, why not get another partner to make up the difference?