@Patrick Philip  you can alleviate all of your concerns by hiring a professional general contractor.

I have mobile homes that I do a similar strategy with that would alleviate a few of your issues.

slightly off topic . in Hawaii, while on vacation we heard some loud yelling and and what sounded like a lot of domestic violence happening - I went outside and was trying to determine the location of it and soon another guy joined me who had also heard it - we discovered the room it was coming from and both approached to ask if everything was ok - a big muscle bound guy answered the door sweating and breathing heavy - he said everything was ok and that him and his girl were just having a disagreement -when asked if she was OK - he said yes - then the guy that was with me asked she could please come  outside and confirm to us that she was OK - I was a little taken back by his boldness , but was glad he asked - so she came to the door and confirmed she was OK and didn't need any assistance.

To be clear, I am not a fan of theirs, particularly after they started muscling in on short sales, but they are legit. 

I will also get to exercise my scrubbing muscles cleaning the kitchen, which is currently coated with a layer of grease, presumably from the 3 deep fryers in the house.

How do we, as realtors, demonstrate our professionalism and ethics and alleviate your fears?

I suspect that a few moderators will be needed to boot out the people like the one that posted all lose gain muscle posts in the RE Success Stories the other night.  

-- Getting too old to Army Crawl under houses all day long for a living with never ending aching bones and muscles.

However, many brokers issue CDAs, as Fred mentioned, which alleviates the reposrting responsibility (in their opinion) because the funds never passed through their account to report, since we issue a check payable to the agent, per the brokers instructions.

Contingencies on a purchase are pretty much non-starters in a hot market but these other two options might help alleviate some the 45 day angst.Also, remember that you do not have to stay with the same type or price range of real estate.