Clearing a half acre of overgrowth and fallen limbs by myself made me reassess this desire.I won't get into particulars, but we learned that it would have been prudent to check the sex offender registry map prior to buying a fix and flip.

You can discriminate and ask for only a particular sex, only a certain religion, etc.I would personally try to find someone of generally the same background, age, income, and temperament as yourself.

Here in CA, i believe there are anti-discrimation laws that state a landlord cannot discrimate on the SOURCE of the income, nor can they refuse households based on the sex of the applicant, or the number of applicants.While i totally understand the first 2 (source of income, as long as legal, and sex of applicants) I dont understand why if you are renting a studio with zero bedrooms, you can't limit the occupancy to say one person.Thoughts?

Here in South Dakota we don't really have a gang land or war zone, which I thought it was a little funny that anyone would check out crime in S.D before getting a hotel :) Not a gang or war zone in South Dakota, but if you look at crime logs and registered sex offender maps, you can get a good idea of which parts of town to stay away from.

Well I was going to make an offer tomorrow but now see a sex offender's last known address is in one of the units.  

A search of Department of Homeland Security or FBI terrorist watch list search is an option but a good  idea.A nationwide US Department of Justice National Sex Offender database ( or similar reliable nationwide database) search is necessary.Civil records should be searched in every county the applicant has lived for the past 7 years at least will provide a real time evaluation of the applicant's civil and financial record.Employment or benefits verifiedPrior landlords contactedCredit standing.How to get it?

This is directly from the HUD site: In the Sale and Rental of Housing: No one may take any of the following actions based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or handicap. 

This site allows users to search by demographics. https://zipwho.com/Stats about all US cities - real estate, relocation info, crime, house prices, schools, races, income, photos, sex offenders, maps, education, weather, home value estimator, recent sales, etc. www.city-data.com/For a  List of the best performing cities visit: http://www.best-cities.org/Hope that helps too.

•NO convicted felonies •NO sex offenders •Minimum credit score of 600 (check yours for free at creditkarma.com) •NO previous evictions •Sorry, we DO NOT accept SECTION 8.

If you're trying to get higher rents, you're place should have more "sex appeal".