If the applicant comes from the pool of people that I or my tenants know, I use real estate as a way to give back as many of my tenants will not qualify credit wise or may even have a criminal background or would struggle for another reason if I were to just stick to the "background/credit check" criteria. 

If you choose to play with fire, that is your perogative.For your reference, here is a good primer.Here is the key paragraph:Rental discrimination is when a landlord or property manager treats an applicant differently based on the applicant’s inclusion in a protected class.

And, yes, there are years of data points to validate that just within my office, tens of thousands of dollars of wasted appraisal and inspection fees for deals (mostly not mine, thankfully) that had 0.00% of going anywhere but the "Loan Application Declined" bin. 

Nowadays, people can make paycheck stubs/W2's that look convincing so just make sure you invest in software that gathers verified information on applicants.  

And IMHO, the prices are dropping big time (on avg. 10K/month...houses that were above 300K a year ago are not selling at 250K now) and the available rentals saturation is worse than I seen during summer season (with rents dropping from 1$-1.08/sqft to 0.8$/sqft and very little contacts and applications...just go in Zillow and look how many rentals are on the market now in Kyle, New Braunfels or Converse). 

The processes remain the same when recruiting and retaining good tenants- there is definitely a better pool of applicants in the OP area however, I been very fortunate to not have had any mayor issues, yet in either market. 

My mom says to ask if they're almost done with the application and let them know that another couple inquired and offered $1,700 and see if they want to match that price.

I would first check city/county STR rules and HOA (if applicable). 

Worst case scenario, if that doesn't work, I can simply do fertilizer applications and landscape lighting as they don't require much labor.

.✅ Professional Tenant Screening – Property managers have systems in place to screen applicants thoroughly, reducing the risk of bad tenants.✅ Knowledge of Chicago Rental Laws – A good property manager stays up to date on local laws, helping you avoid costly legal mistakes.✅ Maintenance & Repairs Handled – No more emergency calls at 2 AM about a broken water heater!