I would verify income with is employer and his paystub should show his YTD earnings to give you a better understanding of how much he's made so far.  

Go to wikipedia for a decent summary of a town/area - history/economics/employment/population trends.

Hi,My husband and I are about to rent out our first investment property and need some advice, please.Currently we're checking out our prospective tenant's information, including previous landlords and employers.

The only "con" I see is that your employer may have thoughts.

If the US economy gains in strength in a variety of metrics , although probably most importantly income growth in conjunction with employment growth then we could see rates rise off the bottom in which hey have been dragging along for years.

No social security # or no employment in the US required.

Many investors I know employ this strategy while pursuing traditional debt product to finance purchases.If you have a nice pile of cash to play with you may consider trying to find some non-recourse commercial financing instead for larger assets.

We were hoping for $1400-$1500(mortgage payment for us is $1280), and they have to pass the usual 3x rent combined income, full credit and background check (we will use rentprep.com), employment verification, etc.

Sometimes those Gig ads will lead to part time employment, if you're reasonably skilled. 

If you have an employer that matches 401k contributions, and are eligible to use a 401k loan as part of the down payment to buy a home, then effectively you've set it up so that your employer is giving you a tax-advantaged "retirement" bonus income that you can apply towards a down payment today.