I tell people when they apply that if they rent, they are renting as a single household.

Over the long haul, that will help to reduce the interest cost and help you pay down your overall debt faster.I would also look very hard at ALL household spending.  

I will greatly go into my savings and probably only have a cushion of about eight months living expenses but I should be able to increase my household income in the long run.

William there are two ways you can help this seller using leases and optionsYou have to ask yourself whether not the property is going to appreciate overtimeIf you feel it's not going to appreciate, you need to get a price below the market today on your option with the seller,  if you going to do a sandwich lease option and stay in the middleIf you going to do a lease option assignment where you lease with an option from the seller and assign thevdeal to a buyer for fee, it  doesn't matter what the price is as long as the price is today's value or lessWhen I talk to sellers I don't talk about lease is an option, I first go through three columns landscape in a yellow legal pad,  and show them the basics of the choices: 1) sell with an agent and pay the customary costs include sellers concessions, agents commissions, closing costs, vacant house holding costs, etc.The first column it's important to go through an example of their house value; what ever  the fair market value is, do that exercise so that the seller truly understands he's going to net a lot less money selling agent than ur solution2) Second solution entails leasing out with the property manager, and you go through the cost to lease it out and also the cost to repair and sometimes property managers tack on other costs like padding maintenance costsThen I talk about the risks involved with leasing it to an unproven tenant, and then having to evict the tenant, lost rent for 6 to 8 weeks, clean the house, remarket and screen the new tenant, etc.Before I go through my solution, I say a "what if statement" that is something like this:Before I say the "what if statement" it's important you understand that I am using "negative phrasing" here, and ""appeal to a higher authority" which works a lot in terms deals like lease options, sub 2, and wrap purchasesHere goes.."

No, these programs usually have loan limits around 300-450, with household income limits of around 50-100k.

Maintaining the property is virtually the same as running a household.  

Most of the others are self-employed professionals, such as doctors and accountants...""...On average, we invest nearly 20 percent of our household realized income each year.

Do you require that household income be a certain percentage of the rent in order to qualify them?  

I had the pleasure of growing up in a second generation real estate agent house hold.

:) A national credit tenant has certain needs, and your property would need to meet a majority, if not all, of those needs e.g. population, household income, location, traffic, etc.In addition, many national retailers need to be in A+ to A- locations with B properties often a secondary option in unique situations.My recommendation would be to figure out who your national credit tenant audience would be for the individual units in the property and then research their new location criteria.