Again, it is about setting the expectations early on and with the nature of the applicants being more transient with their work, you may need to reconsider the strategy.

Rochester appears to be a great market.The bad news:I don't know your financial situation and I might be out of line, but if you haven't been able to amass 7K, you should reconsider getting into buying a house. 

On that note, do you have any red flags when onboarding a new client that make you reconsider accepting them as your client?

What would make a landlord reconsider participating in these programs again?

You'd miss out on any other bull runs.At $267K take home (plus health insurance and retirement benefits) and saving $119K net per year, seriously reconsider how long you can stay at that W2 job.  

Now I maybe should reconsider.. you know like the guy who charges 10k and you have split first 500k with him and he will finance your deals. 

If you are planning to do STR/MTR, you want to reconsider the location of the house.

For all the reasons listed above, I would reconsider to a Single Family Home, preferably with no HOA.

Should I proceed with my offer, requesting credits based on the higher quote, or should I reconsider my offer altogether?

It may also be worth reconsidering getting your RE license depending on what you are looking to do.