The closing agent has no responsibility in this.....they simply close the transaction as per the contract language and written agreements provided by the parties, they don’t go investigating/verifying such things.

A cousin is related by blood or marriage but you can always call HUD to verify.

Without knowing a remote location well or having a quality trusted team in place, I would be very hesitant to pull the trigger on a deal like this without having ALL of my facts straight and independently verified by multiple sources.Not trying to talk you out of it.  

Verify the information on the application and complete your background checks.

If the score is low and the person is young w student loans, are there other steps I can or should take to verify that this person would be a good renter?

As far as numbers, it doesn’t really matter what you are given, you will verify them before you buy.

Verify this with a local real estate attorney/title co.

Unfortunately I made all the mistakes of not having a new contractor sign a detailed contract and we gave him draws before verifying work was actually completed.

Once you acquire, you start your rehab, let's say you upgrade the kitchen and it costs you $15k -- you submit your receipts to the lender to show you paid $15k for the kitchen, and they send someone out to verify the kitchen is done.

The contract normally shortens that to only 1 day (check your contract to verify).