They exercise the newly assigned option and use their $20K + ($500x36=$18K) as their down payment. 5.

That fee only becomes their down payment if you agree to accept it as such when they exercise their option.

One thing no one has mentioned in this thread is the value of the time you are spending on this exercise. 

To Tim's point about buying in your own name and transferring later, I've heard the same that banks rary exercise dur on sale clause, but it may be worth asking upfront to get a feel from the banks you're dealing with on whether they'd give you a hard time on it  if there is a local meetup or RE Investing Association, try to attend so you can see who other investors are using for their commercial loans.

After all, if you are working 24/7, and you never get a break, you are just going to get run down.If you find you struggle to mentally unwind earlier than you’re used to, try some tricks, like putting away electronic devices an hour or so before bedtime, reading a book right before bed, and making sure your room is very dark so you don’t get distracted.ExerciseYou don’t need to take up marathon running to get the benefits of a consistent exercise routine.

If for some reason the Seller gets me to agree to modify it to say “Up until 12:30 AM on XYZ date...” then I better be prepared to lose my EMD at 12:31 AM if I don’t exercise my weasel clause by 12:30 on that day and somethings goes wrong later.  

You can also try to negotiate one or two extension options in the loan (you will typcially have to pay an extension fee and meet certain requirements to be able to exercise the option)

I did an exercise recently that showed the average appreciation on the average San Diego SFR in the last 5 years exceeded the cash flow on the average Midwest SFR for the last 50 years.Do you know how many months at $200/unit cash flow it would take to achieve $200K profit? 

I'd recommend the exercise to anyone.

I thought the case studies were useful exercises in cementing the ideas that Gallinelli taught in the book.