Everything's negotiable and a lender might be willing to back off, but there is no built-in right for a borrower to prevent the lender exercising DOS by deeding back the property.

What kind of pitfalls have you experienced that have prevented closing?

No puke stains on the carpet?

Excessive talking is usually an attempt to prevent getting challenged on anything.Better Business Bureau is making money off accreditation.. but I would still take a look at the complaints.

My other housemate showed me the bathroom and the problem tenant dyes his hair and the dye has stained the toilet and floor!

He can look at stains and say if it's Pesi, Kool Aid, etc.

I would look into your city and state codes, but in my experience when i installed a gas fireplace in my property instead of lining it with a new flue i simply installed a new b vent chimney inside the old brick one, and my water heater also was vented though the old brick as well with a 3" b vent, if you would like to bypass the old chimney all together and cap it (bug prevention) look into new 95% effecent furnaces, they are vented in PVC and can be vented out through side walls, they also make power vent water heaters if you did not want to convert to electric.

What prevents the end buyer from just forfeiting on a contract right at the last minute, then your contract with the seller is voided and then your buyer just buys directly from the seller?

The opinion of that attorney who came up with the idea won't prevent BofA for example from calling the note and going to foreclosure, you or the seller/optionor will need to take the issue to court to stop the process, my opinion is that the optionor won't win, but that's just my opinion.

Also works great on most any stains that need covered, we use it as our primer on old trin that tends to bleed through most primers.