I wouldn't employ this technique more than once - do some research into the going rate for comparable rentals and then post the property again with the appropriate market-rate.As for denying the dog, make sure it isn't a service animal.

We have been using a company called ACUTRAQ for several years with great results.They perform credit, national criminal search, eviction search, they they even call the landlords for verification of rental history and employers for verification of income.  

I am employed at a full time job that I plan to leave behind as soon as possible.

The Chicago Metro now has 420,000 more people employed than at the trough of the last recession and 80,000 more than the last peak employment of 2001.

I would not advise paying the same, there is a big risk that you will get a crappy one (i have a really rigorous screening method), but my pay range is $15-25/hr (for clients plus 35% = 8% employer share taxes, 15% work comp, 12% overhead & profit).

I do know some self employed guys that were forced to use obamacare and pay over $3000/mo for a family of four.

For this reason, it may be best to look into a self-employed 401k as UBIT generally does not apply to 401k real estate purchases that are finance with non-recourse funds.

In Mooresville, there are 27 employers that employ 100 or more employees.  

I can tell you smaller properties are usually self-managed, managed by a worker of theirs who also is a handyman, or they employ a PM company that keeps records not at a standard of what  a large lender asks for in underwriting.So you get a lot of sloppy or incomplete records from the seller or the company they are using at that level.

Granted, these are agents were part of larger team and didn't read the fine print on their employment contract.