Do you have any pets? Do you smoke? What’s your current housing situation? All of these factors can have a major effect.

I would recommend using the additional info box to just explain a bit about you both. As a landlord, it shows you’re keen to sell yourself and aren’t time wasters.

The main things landlords will look for are will you pay rent on time and will you look after the property. You could use this to explain your current housing situation and why that shows you are reliable with rent (it’s affordable and you pay on time). You can also use this to demonstrate that you look after your house (you’re a quiet couple who spend their time reading and going on walks instead of parting basically).

I’ve just found tenants for a house in a small town in Scotland. We had 50+ applications in a few days. Only a handful of them were suitable, but they were all perfect. Income was very high, stable jobs, etc. Ultimately, it came down to really tiny factors. One of them had just sold their house and was moving here from England, so I had concerns they would be looking to buy up here shortly. The other was also amazing, but the large income was from one of them instead of both parties.

You can be amazing on paper, but with how competitive it is now, it’s so easy to have someone who JUST sounds more perfect than you on paper! It’s very tough.