Don’t forget to factor in for health benefits, self-employment tax, etc. the bank will definitely adjust your contract salary to make apples to apples comparison.

I've rented to self employed people before, but we require the last two years' of filed tax returns. 

You do want a property that is close to employment, is not in a crime riddled neighborhood, and possibly some type of visibility.  

Nashville has a sidewalk ordinance in place for certain neighborhoods requiring that sidewalks be paved the length of the road frontage.

But just because a rental activity is deemed not to be a rental activity for purposes of the passive loss rules doesn’t necessarily mean that a profit from such activity is subject to self-employment tax due to the exclusion of rental income from SE tax (IRC §1402(a)(1)). 

A commonly stated risk of a smaller population is possibly having an employer, that's providing jobs to a rather large segment of the population, leave/shut down. 

Rentprep also called them 3 times but no response.For her employment, I talked to person applicant gave me a number on application.

If you are unable to borrow from your plan, or if you need more than you can borrow, then you may be able to take a taxable distribution if you are age 59 1/2 or older, or no longer work for the employer that sponsors the plan.

I recently changed jobs, and I have $187,000 in my 401k at my previous employer.

So you want to rent to guys that aren't paying taxes, an "employer" that doesn't have them on the books, why?