My advice to my past self, too often I have not followed real estate advice or rules-of-thumb because "that advice doesn't apply to my situation" or "it will be different for me because _____".The reality is, the rules of thumb DID apply to me and I would have been better off to heed the advice I had been given.Good luck to you! 

Will our consideration and amount increase if we wait to apply for it after reducing our debt load some or does it mostly depend on the value of our home vs what is owed?

The 1% does not always apply in Canada like it does in the states, In Ontario anything I have seen in my market following the 1% rule is actually a bad investment because they are usually in towns with negative to no growth.

With that said for a quick filter analysis I am applying the 50% rule.

They apply and everything goes through as far as screening and we sign the lease and received the security deposit with the plan to move in March 1st.  

In the past 3 years or so I've gotten 3 conventional loans, applied for another 2 conventional loans, and helped my parents navigate the process on their loan.  

and you already have copies of the leases, I would:-make sure you get adjustment at closing for full partial month's rent from seller (it doesn't matter if tenants are on time, seller owes buyer rent due buyer for stub of month, unless you close on the last day of the month)-give all tenants a 'hello, I'm the new landlord' letter - note where to send payment and what the payment terms are ("according to your lease, your rent of $xxx is due each month on the first; if payment is not received by the xth a late fee of y will apply")-pursue nonpayment eviction against anyone who doesn't pay on time.  

So you can do one of three things:(1) prepare a mock 1040 as you normally would as this will give you a high level of accuracy if prepared correctly;(2) review your previous returns and determine your effective tax rate, then apply that rate to this years earnings; (3) have a CPA do it.I get this request all the time so I've built a template for myself that allows me to quickly estimate a client's tax liability.

If you apply for loan, they ask for this information.

TLDR: Lesser of wonky math being applied to 1) YTD earnings [YTD / # of YTD months] 2) two year tax return average [/24], or 3) one year tax return average [/12]. #1 is almost never the case because all self employed people think they make a crap ton more than what their tax returns say, so it's either a one or two year tax return average, no exceptions.