I run the credit on my tenant applicants, and they don't even owe me money or live in my property yet.

If the investor's position is to merely to be a lender, securing their loan/note with a mortgage (or deed of trust, as applicable) makes sense.

Anyways, we have had several applications on the property and most of the applicants have been woefully unqualified by our not so crazy metrics.

If you can show utilities in your name on a unit showing you moved in, that will help, but applications are taken at face value as applied for.

I do applications, listings to zillow and others, website, payments, accounting, maintenance, reports and its all free.

A pool isn't ideal for a rental but it sure would help with the resale in some markets.....now if you live somewhere that's cold 9 months a year that might be a different story.I have one rental that has a pool that I bought early on in my investing career and when it's vacant I can get 10 applications in a day.

Require an application before providing a lot of additional information?

Assuming everything else is equal, (no criminal records, past evictions, and they applied at roughly the same time), I'd choose the second applicant based on income.

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Make sure you know the landlord-tenant laws applicable to the properties in which you invest.