My most recent SFR has a nice handicap ramp to the front door and bars/handles in bathrooms and stairs to help someone who is disabled.

Ask your attorney about that.Sometimes handicapped or elderly people have more difficulty in renting in rent controlled areas because they get a much greater pay off if they are forced to leave, lots of money. 

I also notice several sr living/handicap apartments in the area (between Cadillac, kalkaska and TC) that seem to have room that are very low rents (like $500-$600) but then I see 1 bed 1 bath apartments in TC for $1200 so hard to understand distance from TC how the rents decrease

We use a scoring system.Stated criteria, pretty broad since we pay the screening fees:Our Criteria:We do not deny housing for race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap, sexual orientation, marital status, or familial status.We do deny housing to individuals:when the application is not complete or accuratewhere there is not sufficient income/resources to pay rent and livewhere there is poor prior tenancy: evictions, violations, damage to rental property, poorly handled move outs, amounts are still owing to landlords or utilities.

That is a huge handicap with future negotiations.

Secondly, we are in North Carolina and I am curious if, after she moves in, we would have to change anything regarding handicap accessibility.

Find someone that is mentally handicapped or completely naive.

We bought a commercial property (4200 ft2 home facility that is a handicapped-accessible 8 BR, 2 bath home, with 2 additional ensuite units that have dedicated bathrooms) that required significant work.

1000 deductable---smoke on wall damage and unseen damage until Feb 1 when I get my brand new 800 sf house built for handicapped son back.

I feel handicapped if I can only look at places if I have pre-approval for lending, something I may not obtain before hand.