I believe the casinos are not really attracting a lot of attention anymore, so that probably means less employment in that area versus the last 5-10 years.

Perhaps you do, but I suspect they will not significantly help improve the bottom line on your tax return.As an aside, since you have not bought your first investment property yet, your creditworthiness will be based on your current employment income supported by your last two years of tax returns. 

As for what should be included on apartment rental application, you should ask for at least two year's worth of tax returns, recent W2, three paystubs, 3 bank statements and an employment letter stating position, salary and years on the job.

I would like to roll a couple of 401Ks that I currently have from previous employers into a self directed IRA and use those funds to buy and rent out a property to generate some cash flow.

So I decide to get a license myself.Being in Michigan, I need an employing broker to sponsor me.

However, if you are self-employed (just part-time activity is required and you can still work for a full-time employer as well) you could open a solo 401k plan, transfer your IRA or former employer plan to the solo 401k plan, then borrow borrow from the solo 401k plan and use those proceeds to invest in real estate outside of the IRA or solo 401k plan.

They also do a great job on following up with listed references and following up with the current employer.

You must actually incur an expense in order for it to be deductible.If you want to pay yourself a management fee, you can do so, but you then need to declare that management fee as self employment income (or into another entity if you like), thus subjecting it to self employment tax.As an individual, you are a cash basis taxpayer (unless you make some pretty specific elections otherwise).  

Robert, I appreciate the answer but with my current employment I don't see how I'd be capable of doing this and having the time to follow up with it but I like the idea.

Solo 401k is Employer Sponsored plan and requires to have a legitimate self-employment activity or small business w/o full time employees.