ways to meet such people would be meetups, or simply walking into some smaller offices, could also ask around to other owners of the assets you are interested in and see who helps them. 

To communicate that a candidate doesn’t meet your qualifications without violating fair housing rules, you can simply focus on the criteria rather than the individual.

The property manager may have some interest in your success (if you get a good one) simply because they are making the most consistently - 1st months rent plus 10%/month.

Simply safety screening criteria.

Should it simply be one of two choices: deny application or accept application with ESA exemption even if the property qualifies for the FHA exemption?

You are simply taking money from some class of people and giving it away freely to another class of people. 

I'm all about finding problems to solutions and figuring out how to make something work rather than simply conceding that it cannot work.

Penalties of these Federal charges may include:30 years in prisonUp to $1 million in finesIt's a Federal crime.I'm not currently at foreclosure, but am recently out of state starting grad school, no income, and home needs repairs that I simply do not have the money to make.

EDIT: Can't delete this post, so simply editing it.

Very simply, large corporations pay into the tax base of that local community and that revenue is used to improve the community and make it a more attractive place for people to live.