When you have $7,000 in an account, it's important to know where that money came from.If you don't already have software, I recommend checking out tenantcloud.com because it is free and pretty robust. it can handle tracking your income and expenses, application screening, marketing, maintenance tracking, owner reports, and more.Sorry for any typos, I'm using speech to text on my cell phone.

First, the terms of the agreement between the property manager and the contractor would be applicable here, and may already have terms of indemnification or mandate the contractor has insurance coverage intact. 

If they don't pass the application criteria could I then ask them to vacate? 

I want a large stack of applications so I can skim the top of the stack for the best applications. 

We gave her an application to fill out and usually for our 1st choice, and told her we'll process her application.

How do you handle getting applicants from waiters/waitresses and other jobs that are partially/mainly paid in cash?

Provided you got good credit(not lower than 580; lender dependent), got a reasonable debt to income, don't have negative credit history and your application info is in line with lender/loan product guidelines you should have some ease(subject to lender approval).Some ways to proceed:FHA loans, bank statement loans, conventional loans, DSCR, hard money for buying the property to rehab and then a cashout refi after the rehab to get a more stable loan, etc.

I notice applicants come with an Equifax credit score, salary, and some other pre-screen items that will not be a substitute for my phone screen + in-person walk through, but seem like an added check and balance.I'm curious if anyone has used their Pay with Lovely service to turn rent into a credit card payment system.

Where I can look at stocks or bonds and find similar securities, same grade and similar perforamce, liquidity and risk, it is applicable as you can identify opportunity costs.

If you have an opportunity where the strategy is fully applicable the way it is intended, good for you and definitely go for it :-).