Changing rental criteria midway

[Colleen F.]

I have a property for rent now that is new to us and difficult to judge timeframe to rental. We had a good initial candidate who made a deposit and for personal reasons back out. At the same time another candidate saw the place and took and emailed me an application but they were looking for section 8 and a dog, both of which we don't take. Anyway they want the place even if we don't take section 8. I have to get back to them.

If I reject them due to the dog and we change our criteria to allow pets down the road if it is not renting do we need to go back to these candidates to reject them again for money reasons? (it is my understanding that section 8 you are subsidized because you can't afford market rent and since the place is market rent they would not qualify income wise to rent without it. I am just wondering what to say, we are not in the city so if I change criteria they will run across our ad again. I am getting a fair number of inquires on do you take pets but not much other traffic at the moment.