From what I can tell, the best thing to give a seller is multiple avenues for how they would like to sell their property to you and a lease option seems like a promising option for both buyers and sellers.My questions are:Is there any way to know if the lender will or will not invoke the clause?

I promise!

It's taking me a lot of hard thinking to figure out the answer when the pseudo-promise of long-term appreciation hangs over my head; meanwhile,  my house sits in hell-zone of constant noise and "visitor" traffic.50% of people I ask about this say I should hold the house because the Bay is so hard to get into, and prices will go up over the long-term.

Hi @Jace Halttunen, the only thing that would stop you from selling to a non-cash-buyer would be the promise you make to the seller. 

Not to get to technical, but I used to be a mechanical engineer selling energy and network projects to big companies, now I run our construction department and install lots of HVAC, and can promise you heat pumps and electric baseboard are light years apart in monthly spend unless you live in Alaska or something.

There are a lot of one man (or woman) shows that will promise that they can handle your job and do it for a great price, only to later find out that they cannot.

It makes it more complicated as my cabin is east facing so we need a sunny morning when the cabin is clean.I have no open nights in February, but several promising weekday dates in March so I'm confident they will get taken within the next 6 weeks.  

Not too late; like mentioned above, Hollywood probably has the most promise for growth in my eyes.

I know the Fed is promising very low interests rates over the next 3 or so years.

It’s possible to find but the areas will not promising for long term investment potential.