The best thing about going local is that they are a phone call or text away to get questions answered, super nice people. I didn't compare apples to apples with a national mortgage company and still wonder if we got the very lowest rate. The advice we got from TM was, if your happy with the rate, lock it in and stop comparing. We did at 3.25. Good rate. We did miss the best credit rating by 5 credit points and there was no negotiating at all. I had hoped a local company could have taken a personal look and gone to bat for us but TM said they didn't have that power to do so.
I don't know what triggered it but after we had signed with the title company, I had offers from our two banks that were slightly lower percentage rate than what I signed for with TM. I should have "shopped the refinance papers" with them, I didn't think they could come close. So I would check with my personal bank before signing off next time. Who knows maybe it was a gimmick and TM would have still beat them. Overall a good experience.