It pushes down the regular LP’s and increases risk imho.  

In this case their total household income (of the husband and adult son combined) does meet the requirement of being 3x the rent, but how should I apply requirements of good credit for this and other applications with multiple tenants in one application? 

Market in a MinuteEast Tennessee home sales declined 18.9% from the previous month, and decreased 9% from a year ago.The median sale price was $375,000 — up 7.58% from the previous year.Total housing inventory increased from the previous year – up 41% from a year ago.

I live down the street from a HS and I currently rent by the room to younger folks who tend to not have kids.

However, increasing insurance rates means that this shortage is also increasing so my monthly payment is increasing exponentially to accommodate the increase in both my insurance rate and my shortage (my mortgage has increased over $400 monthly in the past 1.5 years because of these factors).TL;DR - Is it normal for a bank to require a positive escrow balance at all times like my current bank does?

If you are asking if you should meet the tenant to show them the home, vs them applying sight-unseen, that is a very different answer and should be yes whenever possible. 9 out of 10 times if we secure a lease with tenants who apply to rent a property 'sight unseen' because they are coming from out of town and can't seen it in person until the day of move in [even if they have a friend/relative/agent do a virtual showing and walk through it themselves] it typically never ends well and the home is NEVER what they expected and are unhappy right from the start.

I rented the other 40% to a complimentary auto business, and was able to obtain a 20% annual ROI.

I want to get a “checklist” of what I need to do next in terms of the legal side and paperwork to get this thing rented out (or even steps I need to take prior to renting it out, such as getting insurance and a contract agreement).

These houses would rent for around $500.

She said many of the homes in her area sit empty, waiting for tourists to rent them out, instead of being made available to those in need of housing locally."