All the assets will be put into a will for his children.  

It's not the credit scores, or the 4 children, or the smoking, or the lack of landlord referrals that bother me. 

OP is a plasticizer  used in LVT in the past or for cheaper production and was banned in 2009 in all vinyl children's toys due to its link to autism.

@Michele FischerI am also a newbie an worry about tomorrow an my wife an 6 children would do without which is why I am looking into real estate investing.

I will tell you the two bullet points that will comprise your lender shopping list:"Children wanting to provide housing for parents."

My wife currently stays home with our 3 children and I work a mid-level corporate job ($76K salary), so my DTI ratio is high.I have identified 30 properties in my area that are either vacant land or are occupied but make some sense to slice off 7-12 acres for this move.

But that's ok because I will likely include them in the estate to be passed onto my children and hopefully be able to by pass the estate tax  at that time in the future.  

Also I have young children that play in the yard so I don’t want strangers using their space. 

I recommend looking into areas near economic bases - close to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Ohio State Campus, New Albany, etc.

In other cases where applicants are married with children 3X may not be enough and you will need to bump up the income amount to protect yourself.For a SFH I would not accept any applicant with a credit score below 650 regardless of the actual circumstances of their credit history.