I know that there is a point that I need to walk away from the property, but I want to exercise my mind by trying to come up with other solutions. 

Nice post Account Closed- in my experience (nobody has exercised so far on mine) and from what I've read, the % of TBs that actually exercise and purchase LOs is really low.  

or... take the role as a wholesaler to get home under contract for a buyer? 

Its easy to forget that while the industrial revolution undoubtedly led to a better world it also led to wars, a complete rethinking of govt and its role, revolts and many would argue the various isms that came to dominate the late 19th century and 20th centuries.  

The real binding agreement will ultimately be the escrow instructions drawn up by the escrow company ... in CA the escrow company serves the role that lawyers do in many other states.

But then, it's always understood that NONE of the rent/lease payments go towards the purchase price - until the Buyer exercises their Option by getting financing and paying out the Seller - or, losing their Fee by just leaving or continuing to rent, or, renewing their Option with its new Fee.

If the buyer hasn't exercised his option yet then the property still belongs to the landlord.

I've been doing basic number crunching and thought exercises on something like 20 x 2/1 units at ~1000 sq ft/unit and rent out between $800-$1000/unit in the Houston area.

During my tenure, I've had property management oversight of my Dallas area multifamily portfolio, while assisting with acquisitions and dispositions of assets as well.Prior to jumping into real estate investing full-time, I spent over a decade at Seagate Technology where I held senior leadership roles in Marketing, Product Line Management and Sales.In addition to being a licensed real estate broker in Colorado, I have a degree in Marketing from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The primary goal of this exercise is to give you added exposure to the lending or investing process during the early stages of creating a new business.