If I hold the lease option, how can I actually have the authority to Sell the property? 

I also figure that those hosting also get "paid" in expanding their network in the business and establishing themselves as an authority, which will help their future operations ... very smart business model.If training gets up above a couple hundred, and/or there is significant up selling, then I get suspicious that the host is in the guru education business more so than the REI business, and then I'd run for the hills.

Congress can authorize congressional spending, has taxation authority, etc., while the Fed (Helicopter Ben) has monetary authority (subject to congressional authority provided & reporting).

He talked to the local authorities about permitting and the fire department for te donation.

I'm trying to figure out a better process flow for that, so that the process scales for larger mailing campaigns (the author of that post said he only intended to send 20 mailing out).

I then spend another 25 hours finding and supervising contractors, 15 hours dealing with governmental authorities to obtain permits, occupancy certificates, etc. 15 hours doing cosmetic repairs myself to save money, and 20 hours showing the property, running ads and negotiating leases for renters.So I have purchased a "great deal", a property that I now have $10,000 equity above what I have invested.  

I would approach that neighbor first, because all of the authorities are going to ask you, if you have done that.

Now, anything above and beyond the contingency, if you had not authorized, approved, signed off on, technically you cannot be held liable, essentially this can be viewed that the contractor elected to do a ton of extras for you, unannounced to you and you were simply grateful.  

The housing authorities will not give out this information, even to the tenants, which makes it even more challenging to rent to Section 8, since the unit must be empty to be inspected, at least two weeks before the beginning of the month, and the tenants are often hard on the units, sometimes challenging to deal with.   

About the only difference between a Section 8 tenant and a non-Section 8 tenant is that usually the Housing Authority requires that you send them a copy of any notice that you serve to the tenant.