There are also line of credit type options that may work for you. 

Or can I just state that their credit score falls well below my minimum threshold?

Any recommendations on the best preparation before a first purchase?

While the interest rate tightening does virtually nothing to the mortgage rates, it makes everything else; cars, credit cards, installment debt, more expensive and again, hurts already fragile debt ratios.Hope this gives you some food for thought.Stephanie

I know these things can happen, and I should be prepared for things to go wrong on occasion, but I am not willing to let the horror stories keep me from buying my first property, especially if I have systems in place to hopefully minimize the risk of putting these types of tenants in my properties. 

What if you wouldn’t typically rent to this person (employment , credit score , etc) and now he’s on the lease, they split, and he’s a problem and won’t leave bc “he is on the lease”.

@Paul Daniels those are the two methods most often used, but if you do not want to go conventional or hard money, you would either have to go with private financing, or using some personal lines of credit you may have.

I’m a newbie as well and am preparing my intro!

I have been vigorously saving and investing my income to prepare for this next step.

I am concerned about differing credit scores and incomes.