Some decent responses so far, but all are inadequate😫

Observations & Recommendations:

1)  Credit Score vs Credit Depth
The mortgage industry learned the hard way, via the Great Recession, the fallacy of ONLY relying on credit scores😓
- The score is NOT accurate if there are not enough active tradelines!
- So, we look at how many ACTIVE tradelines are on a credit report
- We're looking for how many at least 12 months & 24 months of history
- We ignore student loans and Chime, Connect, etc.

2) Residency History Verification
You haven't mentioned if this applicant has a prior rental history or if they are living with relatives.
- The background check we use gives us their last 7 years of reported addresses
- Allows us to identify addresses/landlords they may be trying to hide!

3) Rental Payment History
Applicants with lower scores NEED more focus on verifying this😮
- It's important to avoid fraudulent "landlords" via verifying who they are.
- We check public records for legal owner of their previous rentals
- In Michigan, we can even do a Business Entity to lookup on LLCs and often identify the property owner.
- We verify their phone numbers via Google or Whitepages
- We prefer rent ledgers, when possible, to ID late payment patterns
- We also accept 12 months of bank statements showing rent payments

4) Income Validation
It's way too easy to fraud paystubs these days😡. So, we also ask for a bank statement we can verify payroll deposits - since over 80% of employers now direct deposit.
- On the paystub you submitted, you can see the direct deposit info, so get a copy of the corresponding bank statement.
- There are some screening companies out there that get applicant approval to directly access their banking info via Plaid.

5) STABLE Income Calculation
Tenants won't be able to make consistent rent payments, unless they have consistent income, which requires consistent employment🤑
- We require a 2-year work history
- We somewhat validate this by also requiring last year's W-2(s)
- We calculate income 4 ways to verify STABILITY:
--- YTD monthly average (use YTD gross income and Pay THRU Date)
--- Hourly rate monthly average
--- Last year's monthly average (from W-2(s))
--- Monthly average of YTD and last year
- We then compare and investigate if any vary by more than 10% (layoffs, illness, fraud, etc.)
VERY FOOLISH TO 100% RECOGNIZE OVERTIME NOT AVERAGED OVER AT LEAST 12 MONTHS!!!
- Seasonal and economy variances are very common

This Specific Applicant
1) How many active tradelines do they have and how long have they been active?
- Going to guess that given their age, they have very few. So, the recent ChargeOff and auto purchase will have a huge impact on their FICO. Not really their fault.

2) Going to guess they also have been living at home.
- Just verify this via correlating addresses on paystub, W-2, bank statement, driver's license and your background check (if it is supplied).

3) Would NOT recommend recognizing their overtime income. 
- Use only their hourly rate x 2080annual hours / 12 months to determine monthly income.

4) Debt-to-Income Ratio vs "Income = 3x Rent"
- You are rightly concerned about the car payment! Too many landlords foolishly ASSume every tenant will prioritize paying their rent over their car😤
- Total (your rent + car payment) and divide by monthly income. You want this to be under 45% to approve. 
--- So many applicants default on student loans, and they are NOT pursued for collection, that we ignore these payments.

Hope this helps!