So you live and learn when I have a Russian buyer I up my NON refundable EM by double and make it released to me after contingency period if they are not willing to go for that I wont sell it to them.. 

Tell him you would release the old escrow today,  You just "need" another project to buy.  

In Maryland/DC sellers pay the agents, half of the transfer and recordation taxes, and a few small fees for the lien releases.

[You won’t get lien release instructions in the “buying documents” but you can write those up for your friend to send to the title company when you refinance.]To truly protect yourself if you give money to a friend to loan back to you, your friend should agree in writing they are getting a personal loan from you in the amount they are lending to you for the house and that they agree to release the lien simply by you asking, or more importantly do as you direct them to release.

I wrote a book on this that was released in January called Cashing In Tax Free.

this actually happened with the obama administration years ago.these are what you are finding, troy. these houses are less than desirable and the bank, well frankly, " has bigger fish to fry". so these houses sit and sit and sit. get run down, and pretty soon, when the bank wakes up and realizes they have thousands of dollars in carrying costs invested in this house, they discover that they will never get anywhere near the amount that they have invested in the house back to them, so they " drop" the house. thats right, they write it off. they stop paying someone to check on it every 2 weeks, they stop paying someone to mow the lawn, etc. and they stop paying the taxes.my advice to you, call and ask the bank if they have " released the lien or mortgage" back to the original owner. some banks will tell you, others will not. then, call the local tax authority. ask how many years ago the last taxes were paid on the house and who paid them. if it was a bank, and they stopped paying the taxes, well, there is your first sign that the bank has dropped the house. they aren't going to keep paying the taxes on a house that they no longer want, are they?

I have seen parties use this before as a bargaining chip to get their attorneys fees paid before they agree to release the earnest money to the other party.This is why you want language that says contractually if that party is due the earnest money for a breach of contract then the holding escrow company can release the earnest money to the non-breaching party without the breaching parties consent or approval.No legal advice given. 

Sorry for your troubles, but we have a contract.They need to provide a death certificate and get a release of the security deposit from the other guy's estate.If they qualify without the third member, I would execute a revised lease in their names only.

In my area they typically only release this information the day before the sale.

You can also put some more money down on the deal, or put a lien on something else you own and have them release it once the DSCR climbs above 1.2.If the deal is great, find a way.