It gets you entry into real estate investing and can be a viable path in an expensive market.

And when you combine that with buying off market going direct to seller, you can build a real estate empire while being vertically integrated.All of this aside, whatever market you decide to invest in, please be sure to develop a relationship with a reliable contractor and a project manager.All the best!!!

I have found some of the best contractors from Facebook groups in the local market for example "Real Estate Investors of Oklahoma City".

There are several "real estate programs" out of their that the FTC made return millions to people. 

I'd probably find a board certified real estate attorney to do it. 

Does anyone have a sample of an assignable option contract for real estate that I can use? 

First off, congrats on being in a position to scale your real estate portfolio.

Quote from @Aj Green: Quote from @Gregory Wilson: The real issue is how much of a deposit do you have to try to get back from them.Sure, your contingency might work but I assume you gave the deposit to the seller.

House hacking is a solid way to get started in real estate investing. 

Most real estate investing books will answer this question, and there are a lot of blogs about the topic.