Luckily I'm still employed, but spouse fulltime caretaker.

Is there a diverse economy and diverse employer base?

From the county records of how much a property transferred to, to demographic and employment data, rental rates on zillow, trulia, rent-o-meter, street view, birds eye view, etc etc etc.  

I work for a company who employs about 43K or more employees worldwide.

Many students aren't going to be making that much money a month - I didn't when I was employed in college - but I still had all my rents paid on time.

The relocation need not be employer mandated to qualify for this exception.

I know it varies wildly, but what do you think on average a builder can make as a self employed, one man GC/owner builder, building a few modest homes per yr in the Southeast?

Once I quit my job and become fully self-employed I'll most likely have to wait at least two more years to re-qualify for a mortgage.

A lot of employers don't withhold properly for local taxes and non tax professionals that do their own taxes through TurboTax type services usually don't realize they have a local municipality tax obligation. 

I recommend a full background check, credit check, rental and employment verification (at least 3x the rent income) as well as walk the current property that they live at.