I've seen him in his car smoking, found a pack a cigars on a patio chair, and a lighter.

As a hedge you can collect additional security and more heavily weight their income. 

We typically need 3,500 - 4,000 sqft of open space (no need for a roof as long as we stay in SoCal) in the backyard to take photographs, store, and service our machineries (small, compact 5,000 to 12,000 lbs weight excavators).

Maybe its gaining some winter weight?

I plan on super "spiffifying" this property, Good price for a nice little property.You said you wanted to super spiffy it up.I did a quick mockup of a more modern look.Hardieboard, stone, metal roof, eaves extended, etc...Lighter colors look bigger.Good Luck!

Explain your specific situation to the landlord though, they will probably just more heavily weight your wife's application and just take into account your verifiable income. 

Do you have weight limits?

A few good GC relationships are worth their weight in gold.Low barrier to entry, high risk, more returns if successful.

Got a good group together in Connecticut. " style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 22px; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(52, 65, 77); letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; height: 888px;">Update time on previous threads, mainly as accountability for all y'all CT real estate folks.

So it made a weight onto areas that weren't designed to have the weight of a roof on them.