Shady Seller - Loan Contingency removal BEFORE title is complete

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Hi BP community, I just wanted to get the feedback and advice from investors/realtors/lenders on this forum.  I'm currently under contract to purchase a SF house in the Riverside county area.  

I was curious - what's everyone experience right now on removing loan contingencies before the close of the sale?  Is this a normal practice? I understand that when you remove all contingencies from the contract, if we do not finalize the loan on time or the lender does not fund - then the seller can keep our Ernest money.  

Background - we were searching for months in the area and continued to get beat out by multiple all cash offers that were ~$45-55K over listing price.  Many of the houses we viewed were listed for 1-2 days before locking into contract. We saw a significant increase to listing prices since Nov '20 (not surprising as this is similar in the rest of CA).

We thought we landed on a gem b/c this property had fallen out of escrow due to last buyer's inability to close the loan.  We came in with a pre-approved loan letter, half of the Ernest money as down payment.  We had a 30 day loan contingency and an estimated 40 day close (4/19) listed in the contract. We've hit our 30days today 4/10.  The seller is pushing us to remove all contingencies.  She's not being flexible and will not sign an extension. Our lender/ escrow/title is estimating ~4/16 to close.  From everyone we've talked to, it's completely normal for things to shift by a week or so and typically a seller will extend the contingency. With her past history, she won't budge.  

The seller is the listing agent.  Seller told our agent that she continued to get all cash offers much higher than ours, after we locked into contract. She kept her listings up for a week after we locked into contract and my agent's office had to push her to tag it as under contract. Our agent thinks the seller is trying to keep the Ernest money, back out of the contract, and go with the all cash offers  :(  Shady! 

Any ideas on how to handle or mitigate risks on our end? 

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Lena