Matthew, if you are an accredited investor, there are literally thousands of syndications and crowdfunding deals (which are essentially syndications that are allowed to market over the Internet) available.

What documents do they require, what credit scores do they allow, how do they verify previous rental history, etc.?

The sellers credited us with the security deposit and about $900 for rent (tenant pays $1200).

The more complicated your business structure becomes, the more problems it can actually cause such as when looking for lending options, getting the best interest rate, keeping clean accounting, filing taxes, opening bank accounts, getting credit cards, executing a 1031, making title insurance claims or even triggering a due on sale clause, etc. 

You can do as little as 0% down and maybe even get money back at closing if you can implement seller credits into your offer during the inspection period or prior to going in contract. 

You can run your own credit report on one of the big three like TransUnion and bring that to the bank.

How hard is it to get credit reports and I have read some landlords get livescan on potential tenants. 

This is basically an unsecured personal loan, like a credit card.

Some lenders will let you both be on the loan and use the Higher of the credit scores between you and your credit partner. 

Focus on getting your finances back on track first—start saving and work on building your credit score.