These also don't have to be mutually exclusive which I'm sure complicated valuations and analyses.

Not exclusively...and not always as successfully as I'd like...but generally...yes that's the intent :-)

I don't want to sign an exclusive contract with an agent.

In Chicago, there are management companies that focus exclusively on subsidized housing since it eliminates the rent collection issues, and this could be an interesting play in SB. 

I don’t think it would be good to source potentially properties exclusively from something like this, for the reason you outlined.

You need someone who owns and deals with investors, ideally exclusively.

I want to build a private lender’s list to help with rehabs that I want to do exclusively. 

And I have an AMAZING lender that I work with exclusively.

We had our own strict limitations on who could rent our place that precluded large groups, and we rented almost exclusively to families.

Finally, I spent two years almost exclusively working with investors, providing nearly every type of financing.My guess would be this: there is a very definable trade-off between local knowledge and access to properties that "check all of the boxes".