First you need to establish your financial "finish Line". 

I heard about the FHA program where you only have to have 3.5% down but being new like I am to all of this I don’t really know how credible it is .

Dilutes their credibility.

Lastly, if you are still worried, moving forward write your rental criteria on paper, make sure it follows fair housing laws; go get it notarized and stick to it, the next time this happens and you deny someone for the reasons on your criteria you can clearly point out in court that your criteria was well established before they even ever came in the picture.

We’re expected our 1st child May 2022 and we promised ourselves that we’d do anything to allow our children to be able to live a normal and established life where we can raise them and not have to leave them 9-12 months at a time.

Creating an LLC to transfer the property into and looking to build credit/ establish the loan via the LLC.  

Thanks again, any one with experience on whether just going through Foreclosure would facilitate a transfer or not and eliminate the need for me to establish the heir's ownership as he will not come forth to contest as he doesn't want the property?

This gesture gives you greater credibility with your contractors & service providers.

(think attorney to draw up docs, attorney to handle foreclosure/default situations, vendors to establish a value or do background checks on potential borrowers, a system to securely transmit sensitive information from borrower to lender, the appropriate disclosures in place, an application, etc etc).

Work to establish a relationship with the business owners of next year.