Picking the right tenant and avoid discrimination

[Jared Pfaff]

Hello, I have 32 units currently. We manage 26 of those. Although we have not had any issue with someone feeling discriminated against that we are aware of I want to make sure we are fair. We typically post a house/ apartment for rent online along with putting a sign out in the front yard. We usually get quite a few enquirers pretty quick. Depending on the demand, we may show the apartment individually or as an open house. From there, we pick the 1st qualified applicant that we feel has the an income greater than 3 times the rent, Who has a good credit score, has solid job history, and their current landlord and employer speak highly of. Since we may get 10-20+ applicants in the first week. 2-5 of those may fit that criteria. From there we narrow down who we feel will take care of our place the best and who applied 1st. Do we need to contact everyone else back and give them an answer of why they didn't get it or are we ok with sending them a message that the unit has rented and we will keep their application for review if another unit come available. We don't choose by age, gender, race, etc. We choose who we feel will take care of our place and can afford the rent. With this process, are we doing anything wrong? I look forward to hearing you ideas and comment! Thanks, Jared