Renting out my first house hack

[MarieChele Porter]

Hi all,

I put my house on the market for rent 12/31 and have already received upwards of 50 inquiries.... This has lit a fire under me like no other.. I wish I had more houses to offer !! I have these thoughts of omg people are actually excited about moving in my home and paying my mortgage for me !! Yessss, I have been pre-screening tenants and hearing so many stories so it keeps me humble... 

Some questions that have came up though... 50 leads I only have one house !! I finally just stopped marketing it on most websites this evening as I feel like I'm already going to have to turn a lot of people away. Through pre-screening I've been able to ditch some of the people that are just playing around and also those that don't qualify for whatever reason.  My question is should I have kept marketing it? When do you stop marketing? Do you get to a certain number of people and stop or do you continue until the house is filled? I won't be able to show it until Wednesday so that's a part of the reason I pulled marketing. I have to thank the forums because the biggest amount of leads came from turbo tenant which is a site I learned about through here.

Another question is with how many leads I have I feel like I will have a ton of people I have to deny. I am not letting people apply until after the showings btw... How do you decide who to deny? I want to follow the rules to the T to make sure I am not breaking any laws but I just wonder if it comes down to 2 tenants that are both equally qualified do I just pick the one I like better? Or that I feel is the most responsible? What are some good tips? I'm in Fresno, California and if any one knows CA it is tenant friendly so I just want to make sure I'm crossing "T" and dotting "I's"

Last question, the central valley is heavy with immigrants. Is it possible to screen a tenant properly that doesn't have a SSN?

Thank you,

MarieChele