I never said that we were going with another applicant because it implies you have the place rented already, and what if it's still listed for rent a two months from now?  

Well, getting back to the premies of your original post, you seem to be implying that someone is behaving "irrationally" by hanging on to a day job and funding a 401K or IRA vs getting into the REI game.

I don't know about your area but in Ca theres a law called the implied warrenty of habitability in short it says that in order for you to collect rent that the rental must have running water, the ability to produce hot water plumbing trash bins pest free, electrical service heat source and so forth.

Others seem to imply cash and or hard or private $. 

However, using them as a selling point creates an implied warrant of safety.

I worry that they thought that, when I asked them to lower the price, I was implying that I would accept their bid as long as they agreed to the new price, rather than going and asking their competitor to match the new, lower price before making a final decision.Company B also spent a long time discussing details of the job over email with me over the course of a week or so.

That implies courses, tests, and license to me. 

You immediately implied Michael was a liar which was completely unnecessary.

Are you implying that we should try to be on black for line 26 to look good for financing.

Using a social security number (or Social Insurance Number here in Canada) just facilitates finding the correct credit history when the query is run ... its presence does not imply a hard enquiry.