Can I pick the best applicant? Avoiding discrimination.

[Alex Gordon]

I manage my own property with my wife.  We have the excellent problem of lots of interested in our soon to be vacant unit.   We use cozy.co and advertised in multiple places.  To save time we set one showing up in a few days and said we accepting applications through the weekend.  We already have 3 applications and it appears most will meet our minimum requirements.   Are we allowed to select the "best" of the tenants that meet our requirements.  For example, could be pick a tenant because they have a higher income?  Or do we have to go the first person submitted?  Other things we would like to consider are pet type and size (we accept pets), references, income etc..  I want to make sure we steer clear of any discrimination issue but would like to select the best tenant.