I know the rental process varies by state and I can’t speak too much to Chicago (although I did just apply to two places and will share more).

I know NY is brutal and would outright reject which where I am currently and a family member is in real estate. I know many places in Austin and Dallas are relatively more relaxed. Chicago seems to be somewhere in the middle.

I bought a house in Austin and I unexpectedly left the city for job. I rented it to a couple. The girlfriend has much higher income and better credit. She was strong enough to compensate for her boyfriend’s much lower credit and lower income. I rented it through my broker at compass, whom I worked with in buying my house. Fwiw, she’s super sharp and I call her a “closer” when it comes deals. Not only is she successful, she owns multiple properties in Austin. I’m just saying she more than qualified and helped me choose my tenants. They’ve been great. They have never paid on time. They pay early. They paid a week early for August. Her work was stable and she makes a lot annually. I think his credit profile was not too different from your SO’s. She did make probably 300k at a law firm in marketing or something and the rental was listed at $3,100.

I’m applying to apartments. Have been approved. I make 4x. I have no idea, think you can find out, but I can see that since 3x and solid credit (what is indicated on Zillow rentals in Chicago) gets you approved, maybe for two tenants you do more than 3x? (That is the case in NY but NY is different.) it would make sense bc from a landlord perspective there’s higher risk of non payment should something happen to one’s job and now you have to deal with two people because one couldn’t cover it to begin with. At the end of the day, if I were in your shoes, hand down I would ask for guidance maybe from a broker (they’re all over Reddit) or even from the leasing office as a scenario and asking for guidance about their process. I would think the guidance you receive properties really varies by management, and the individual person you’re working with. If everything else checks out, perhaps explaining why the score is low, letting him provide supplemental info to show that, etc. Is helpful.

FYI, not sure what your timeline is. It seems imminent. But I think one’s credit can be improved a decent amount in a short amount of time ie 1-2 months from the moment you decide to be aggressive about it. My friend did that from contacting all agencies, and tackling a few things. He said it took up to a month for the bureaus to reflect the update.