How long to hold a property for a tenant?

[Patrick Donovan]

I have a property that I is available for rent April 1. Most of the people inquiring about it are students since it is so close to the 3 universities we have here in town. My question is if I find some tenants who are interested and fill out applications and everything looks good, how long should I hold it for them and what should my terms be since most want to move around the end of May? Should I have them sign a lease agreement from April 1 and have them paying rent for the two months they aren't going to live there? Or if they want to fill out the applications should I basically just tell them that they better hope they are lucky and no one else gets it before them?