And I'm not too proud to ask for advice, so here I am :) I do have hardlined "principles" for denial for some items like felonies, evictions, and income, but credit is a gray area for me.Anyway, I have an applicant that I get a good gut feel from, has no criminal history, has no evictions, and the pay stub indicates the income is 4.5x the monthly rent.

Anyone having tenancy in the unit, over age of 18 is screened, criminal background check per person is what your looking at,,if one of them don't meet criteria then you have to reject the application..Credit wise you combine the 2 incomes to see if they meet the credit criteria,, one may have good credit / income,, one may not... but combined they still would need to meet the criteria set.A person, even a child is a tenant,, they are listed on lease as minor child , date of birth.If your criteria is 2 people and the couple has a child,, then they would not qualify for the unit they are OVER occupancy.. 

If the tenant stays and has a pet but the landlord is hostile that can be a federal offense with the government paying for the legal representation for the tenant.It really comes down to two factors.If the doctor is recommending a pet then the landlord really has little room to argue about the medical benefits.

No offense, but it's not a comprable analogy, You can check all the refs, bonding etc.all you want but you never know if your contractor is one paycheck away or one day away from the street.

In the past, for any qualified tenant candidate, I would send him/her through credit report, criminal, and background check (pay $30-$50) after filtering through all the applications. 

I expect that many wannbe wholesalers don't have a penny, and that many more could not clear the frankly quite low bar of getting licensed (passing the test, credit or criminal background check, etc.)

In Canada it is not routine to run criminal background checks and there appears to be no ready means of conducting them.

Hello,   As an active buy&hold landlord type, I often have to run criminal checks on people. 

If they say the ss number then she can fill out your name and send in the document.You don't ever have to see it.It's just like people getting loans for a mortgage.When I show property people don't want you knowing their net worth or income and how you spend it etc.I tell them I don't need any of that just the approval from the mortgage company.That is between you and them.When I did residential short sales sellers would give me ss for authorization but I am a real estate broker.While not full proof I did have to pass licensing and a criminal back ground check among other hoops.Some investor just showing up at a door asking for a s.s. number could be a criminal,scammer,whatever.

After hearing the institutional perspective, and experiencing the collapse that we will all have to deal with for many years to come (no offense to the people working in the institutions!)