They assumed because it was a winter availability and read somewhere that a LL is willing to compromise to get a rental filled I would bend over to get it rented. 

Burt I know what you mean.............for my part the stuff that is on the MLS today is too competitive and I have only seen one deal that worked well in the last 12 months-the rest were rejects; and I did not compromise.

Never work at making any applicant qualify.First lesson in screening applicants is never compromise on screening.

So, this was not a matter of compromising our underwriting standards just to get a deal - I wanted this one.Having said this, it seems that you are echoing my take.

Don't compromise your goals or criteria look harder instead.

How about a compromise? 

I understand that we have our own risk tolerances, but it seems impossible for us to invest in rental properties that generate supplemental income because of a low-risk tolerance.Perhaps it's a big picture discussion and there will need to be compromises from both sides but I wanted to see if anyone else has had to educate/convince their spouse of the benefits of rental properties.Thanks for your insight.

After talking (nicely) to the tenant and providing several scenarios they seemed to come around to the idea that it was just better to work this out and compromise.

If it is a complicated neighborhood I might hold a second neighborhood meeting showing them the compromises made to satisfy their concerns.

You do things their way and get a foothold.4) Find that perfect compromise between the above 3NONE of these are the wrong answer (IMO).