New landlord, tenant screening process

[Vince Roddy]

I'm close to acquiring my first rental property. As I look at the advice I've read and the input I've gotten so far, I recognize my strategy (after some small rehab) is to focus on finding just the right tenant. My goal here is to balance the cost of rent against trying to cast large net to find as many tenants as possible for which to screen. Thus, through strict tenant screening process, having a large pool to select from and having a desirable property, I can hope to create long term stable income. Any insights on the strategy about this next step? What's the minimum number of candidates you would screen before revising the rent (dropping it). Which tenant screening criteria do you find to be the most important?