For how often everyone talks about "just get roommates" as a solution to all financial problems, I think getting roommates is harder than it sounds.
If you are looking for a place and for people, you need to find people who agree with you on key features of the place. If you think no dishwasher, and coin laundry is A-OK, but they don't, you are going to spend more on an apartment or have conflict. If they hate having upstairs neighbors, or are loud and hate having downstairs neighbors, you'll have to work that kind of thing out. Also, working hours/ home time hours/ cooking would be a good thing to talk about. (If I get home at 9pm and cook dinner, and my roommate has to be at work at 5AM, I might keep her up, while she wakes me up way too early. If we both get home at 5:30 and both want to cook in the same tiny kitchen at the same time, that is impossible. It's nice to have an hour a day or a night each week you can expect to have the apartment to yourself.)
Then, I've always put everyone on the lease and had everyone pay the landlord individually if that works for the landlord. That way, if someone bounces a check, the landlord will come after you instead of you as the sublessor paying the bank fees, etc. Yes, other roommates might have to deal with the late fee/ pay the amount missing. But, I think roommates are less willing to short the landlord, knowing there will be notices etc. than to short their apparently rich roommate.
Think about how safe you feel about your stuff. Do you want locks on the inside of bedroom doors? I think 4 adults probably would need 2 bathrooms, especially if you don't yet know the showering, getting ready, and bathroom habits of 2 of them.
In my experience, different landlords and companies deal with income and credit scores differently. I think the usual case is that your combined income must exceed 3x the total rent. I've often had to provide the name and number of my previous landlord to verify how we left, and I'm sure they always check for prior evictions.
Once, when I was looking with 4 people total, one house rejected us because one person had a low credit score. But several other places didn't mind. As long as one or two of us had a good credit score, no one had evictions, and our income was sufficient, they were willing to take the risk. I think the priorities are usually: 1) Sufficient income (and possibly history with employer) 2) No prior evictions 3) Prior rental history that appears stable and non-risky 4) Credit scores.