How many applications to give/accept at one time?

[Brian Christoff]

New to renting / landlording.  We are renting out my fiance's house and after only 36 hours of having the listing posted, we've had 16 inquiries thus far with several folks stating how very interested they are.  

Having followed several guidelines, etc. they all were provided with the forms:

1.  Application Process & Qualification Standards

2.  Potential Tenant Questionnaire

However, it has occurred to me that we will have multiple parties that meet the qualification standards at one time.  Given this, how are we to proceed?

1.  Give all that meet #1 and #2 above a application?  If so, how in the world do we justify charging a application fee (most likely $35 ... to cover Background and Credit checks) if we are only going to choose one?  

2.  What if we have multiple applicants who have No evictions, credit above 600, long job history, make well over 3x the monthly rent, No felonies, etc.?  In other words, if we choose the one we like the best based on all the information obtained ... how do we tell the other 3 or 4 or 5 applicants that although they met and possibly exceeded all the requirements, we chose someone else?  

Or, is this normal and typical?  

Should I only ask one applicant at a time (or 2 at most) to apply and do background and credit checks?

Just a bit confused as to how to deal with multiple applicants who may meet all our requirements and how to legally choose one and deny the others.

I live in Indiana and don't see anything specific in IN Fair Housing laws.

Thanks for any help!

Brian