What happens if I don't meet the requirements for an apartment lease?
In a hot rental market, if someone does not meet the requirements, the landlord just moves on to the next candidate. If you have 7 people who want one apartment, then one of them will be better qualified than the others. If you get only one inquiry a week, you might let certain things slide, if they are close enough. Personally, I dont think its worth owning property in soft markets, which is one of the reasons I havent bough 10 or so 3BR houses in Detroit, which you could conceivably buy for less than half a million dollars.