I ended up falling out of escrow then the sellers came back to me a few days later with a lender that could fund the loan at a slightly higher interest rate (3.125%) to get the deal done. 

Also, even if they have purchased a home before, they aren’t necessarily that savvy so it may take days to week or more for them to get all the paperwork together for a loan officer to figure out what they can lend (ie people have lives and also not always “clean W2” salaries).While I work with plenty of clients who don’t have their financing set when I meet them (or day they do but can’t prove it), required PoF is important to make sure you aren’t wasting the Realtor’s time, or fall in love with a house you can’t afford.Case in point.

Hi Gene,In Communist China they just weld the doors shut on the sick virus victims.

While it's impossible to offer any guarantees, and any number of things could delay your closing,  if you are that deep into a refi, your lender would likely have no incentive to cancel it in a falling interest rate environment. 

I've tried to warn most of them to it out but it falls on deaf ears.   

On Monday my realtor said he's already having deals fall through due to layoffs.

Tenants never seem to catch up once they fall behind.

And would putting together a team for managing properties here before I leave be a good idea, or does that usually fall apart?

Fixing the deck posts last fall for example.

You also want one that doesn't fall over so easily.