I have spent the last year working two jobs to save money and at the same time improve my credit.

The charges for preparing and posting notice, filing for court date, etc are all part of tenant financial responsibility as per lease.Be fair but firm and treat EVERYONE equally, regardless of stories/excuses they try to provide. 

If so then you may be able to get 90% loan to cost depending on experience, credit score, loan amount etc...

If this was a 50k house and you wanted to pay 50k and the seller wanted 60k that’s a fairly substantial gap.

Always fair. 

My credit score is around 750, and I got pre-approved for 330K at 4.5% back in May.

You can also have your prospective tenants pay for Credit/background checks via Cozy, as well.

i would go with former tenant, however I would still have them do a credit/background check (at their expense using something like SmartMove). 

I know of an investor who uses that strategy regularly and does fairly well.

Ideally you want to get to the point with your buy and hold operation where you have enough surplus cash flow coming in each month where you can cover a line of credit for your properties.