Income requirements for tenants in MA

[Manikantan Nambi]

Hi, I am closing on my first house (multi-family) in a week and I will be renting out one of the units. I have seen on BP and other websites that an income of 3-4x is a good rule of thumb while screening for tenants. My question is how do I enforce it? Can I tell potential tenants that I will only rent out to tenants that earn > 3x of the rent? Would that be considered discrimination? 

Thanks.

[Jonathan R McLaughlin]

FYI If you are in a city/area with good public transportation I think you can stretch the 3X income and be pretty safe with good tenants. Cost of housing is SO exorbitant here that people often make tradeoffs with cars etc. for location. I'm not suggesting you go too much lower, just a thought.