Fair Housing & extended Lease Options.

[River Luce]

Good Afternoon Bigger Pockets!

My Long term Real Estate Goals all come back to investing in Buy & Hold Properties. My favorite stories to listen to are the successful landlords who have managed to find great tenants who have lived with them for 20+ years! I want to own property that gives tenants the feeling of belonging and in-turn gives them the desire to stay longer then 1 year at a time. I know many people prefer to cycle through tenants so they can charge more each year with higher market rates. But I personally would feel more stable charging the same amount for longer term residents and reduce vacancies. 

My question is on the legality of sorting out potential bad tenants and giving potential good tenants better offers. On the B.P. podcast I recently heard a guest speak about a points system they have for screening. If the applicant does not receive enough points they do not get accepted. By using a points system I would like to highlight a scenario I am curious about.

Person 1 applies for a unit and after their background check has been completed the receive 70/100 points. (for this example anyone under 70 points is denied)  

Person 2 goes through the exact same process and comes back with a 100/100 points.

Is it legal for me to offer person 2 a longer lease option because they have better qualifications, and in turn are more likely to be a better option for a long term tenant? Or does every person that applies have need to be offered the exact same lease options in that type of scenario? I would love to offer 2 or 3 year leases but I am concerned about what might happen if I were to give someone that barley passed my background check that option and they in turn destroyed the property.

Thank you for your time!