History lesson here: Sounds like your stairs are 'burglar stairs.'

Also if they arent great look at the rental history.  

Every stock picking genius in history has eventually gotten in wrong, or been found to be cheating, so I don't trust my own ability to find those deals.I would argue that in order to find the winning stocks you probably have to spend a lot more time researching than you do to find a decent buy and hold rental. 

The husband and wife have been agents and investors in the local area for 25 years and their daughter is a hungry young agent who is now the top deal closer in the area.  

Before I knew it, I was married (22 years old), had a daughter (24 years old), and had a son (26 years old).

I hung the hooks and plants with my 4 year old daughter!

You generally have to have some rental history for the lender to consider that as a part of your income. 

I bought a 3/2 townhome with a two car garage for 17.5k doubled my $$$ in 2 years sold, bought a nice big home for 67k and doubled that in a couple of years and the rest was history. 

HoweverI would certainly have your attorney look to the Broker, as it seems this guy has a history the broker should have been aware of.

The prospective tenant (PT) just moved to the US so has not established a credit history.