Per the Purchase and Sale agreement, the home is contracted to close "on or before 3/24/17"; up until this evening we were on schedule to close in two days, on Tuesday, 3/14/17 at the seller's request for an early closing (e.g. all my pieces of the agreement are complete).Two major issues:1. 

Should I honor the request, or stand my ground?

I would tell him if the item is valuable then he needs to call the police and report a theft and to give them your contact info if he'd like you to verify you brought it in at his request and what condition it was in -- open, torn, or sealed and in decent shape.   

I posted one of my articles here in the past in response to a request for help on a subject on mobile home investing and was told by one of the moderators it was not allowed.

I received your colleague request and just now saw this post.

You need to request a P&L Statement from the owner and get the NOI.

How do I add members or request members so I can network with other investors

As you suggest so would my next step be to find a local contractor, contact the RE agent for the property and request for a inspection?

Request for the trailing twelve month's (TTM) to understand the financial numbers.

In my opinion these are far more onerous to a landlord. 48 hours to accept the offer of a tenancy- Outrageous. 72 hours for supplemental information requested by the landlord!