The agent, a fiery German lady going after the owner, berated the owner, threatened to sue him if he doesn't accept us as buyers, and the deal was signed off that night.An explanation.

It's desperate out there and in my experience, most landlords ( with nicer and higher end units) will not accept programs. 

It's really disappointing to host dishonest people but it's an unfortunate reality you have to accept.

You'll probably want to do some more digging on these tenants before accepting them.6 adults and 4 kids in a 4/2 home is a red flag itself.

The compromises and terms that you'd have to accept for a lender to take that amount of risk would likely be a bad idea.

Absolutely I would not spend $$ on a cookbook, not everyone cooks, and it will likely just go in the trash.Also, the first few months are when tenants are in the testing phase, so this isn't the time to show them you are a softy, it's the time to go strictly by the lease, and this is a professional relationship. 

The noise from upstairs is annoying so next time I'd do more testing of the quality of soundproofing in the ceiling (older home so wasn't as good).

Although there are technically 7 ways to pass this test, usually only two of them are useful in the STR context:A.

And we are just getting ready to pass the septic licensing test which will help us save 6k to 7k per cabin by doing our own septic. 

If you wouldn't accept the same application for a new resident, would you "let it slide" with this resident?