Which tenant application do I process first?

[John Hammers]

I have 2 people interested in renting my townhouse. The first person that showed up wants to enter an application with a lease that starts September 1st, another person showed up right after the first person and wants to rent starting August 15th, do I need to process them in the order received or does the person wanting to rent August 15th get the first chance at renting the townhouse?

[Steve B.]

the order is actually based in anything you want as long as it didn't violate the rights of an enumerated protected class which is quite small. Most advice you receive on this issue will come from people overly frightened, or extremly obedient to government vagaries