One bad tenant will prevent other tenants from paying their rent (they won't tell you that is why they aren't paying).Bottom line, I would do it and I would pay special attention to the tenant screening process.Cheers.

How much is maintenance and preventative maintenance on that sort of house?

I'm rooting for you and keen on everything anti-fraud, hence, why I'm following your discussion. 

I would worry if the floors were out of kilter enough to prevent a normal person from standing up right or walking on the floor without falling.

He spent 2 hours trying to find the root cause as all the diagnostics appeared to be OK.He did not give us any receipt when we left. 4 days later, the tenant receives a bill via email for another $239 with the recommendation to replace the AC damper units.

Way to go tenantresourcecenter...Check this out: https://www.rentprep.com/property-management/landlord-guide-assistance-animals/Regardless, I think one of the easiest ways to prevent the ESA lies is to just allow pets and have a very strong pet policy. 

I understand the spirit of preventing investors from using loans meant for owner-occs, but that argument doesn't fully explain this provision in my opinion.

But when your house is on fire and you see someone pouring gasoline on it, you suddenly become uninterested in who started the fire and more concerned with those preventing you from putting it out. 

We would just refund it to prevent any issues. 

I got to the point where I provided 3-4 very accurate comps to every appraiser, prior to the appraisal process, so they knew I understood the market should valuation come up short - that step went a long way in preventing issues!