However, Fidelity insists that I can no longer be employed by the originating employer. 

In the past, I have employed them through recommendation from my acquaintance or neighbors or just through yelp but the current tenant is a little bit "sensitive" (paying rent timely and not trashing the place so no big deal so far) and has repelled many of the repairmen that I have used in the past as "unprofessional" (they can definitely get the job done/fix the problem but the tenant will dispute with them for e.g. being late, not good at communication, or "cutting corners").

Almost all issues with tenants seem to be resolved easier if you employ a method that involves the carrot and the stick.

I'm a standalone buyer, and am now having issues getting realtors to work with me, since no one wants to deal with Hubzu and make 1000 bids and track "auctions" to completion over and over, just to get an outrageous counter offer, with NO MEANS OF NEGOTIATION...I see it as a total BAIT AND SWITCH....bait you in with a low "starting bid", don't reveal the "reserve", and allow the "seller" that you can't contact to make one way "counter offers", yet you have to re-bid every time, thus maximizing their potential to stick you for more cash.I've also heard from more than one party that they see shady bids that come in, and seem to only pad the money for Hubzu...nice that there's no way to confirm that the actual bids come from anyone that actually exists...

I have a 401k with a previous employer that will allow me to take a loan against.

I basically googled top ten employment search engines.

You have a solid reason to reject the application based on a lack of verifiable credit and employment history, and if you accept this tenant and reject others because of credit or employment, one could argue that you were discriminating against that future tenant.

Motivation: appraising is boring, it is a job even if you are self employed, commercial appraisal is not scalable, and does not create wealthRE investing creates wealth, there is the thrill of the deal, and I want to be an expert in finding deals before I make my own investments.

So I do criminal background, verify employment, verify income(paystubs), and try and drive by their current rental property to assess condition.

At 7 years the properties were paid for and I was making more money in a day (annualized) than I did in a month when I was employed and retiring much earlier than most even consider.