"Have you ever been convicted of a felony and/or a violent crime?"

I stopped buying occupied homes at auction years ago just because of this  3 suicide attempts and one successful will kind of dampen your enthusiasm.. not to mention people are nuts these days.. you could go to the door and it could turn physically violent.

This is an average condition house for the neighborhood and area.I have set my screening requirements as:600-650+ credit score3 times monthly rentNo evictions, violent, or sex crimes6+ months of job historySome form rental references.I have an applicant who meets all requirements except I am unsure if he will have rental references because he told me he's couch surfing right now.  

There have been stories in the news about Uber drivers who had been screened and background checked by Uber, only to commit violent crimes. 

If your state has online criminal records, I'd look him up first to make sure you're not dealing with a violent convicted felon or anything.

Now that being said, North Nashville, now suddenly lovingly called Buena Vista, used to be a war zone as well. 10 years ago no one would go near East Nashville, and Nations was the home to many violent crimes.

Pay attention to local crime data, but look at it within context e.g violent crime is up in 2015 in many major metropolitan areas so is that really going to impact renter behavior?

Violent language and even threatening.

I am also glad you used the word "potential" in the standard real estate way.For everyone that does not know, this area has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the country. 

It all exploded this morning with a violent disturbance, front door kicked in, and tenant's guest threatened one of the other roommates with a knife.