I'm sure for his sake (and the sake of his listeners), there's more context to this than just this information.If there isn't additional context, I suppose I could credit his advice for one thing ---> it's a good way to earn yourself free housing, three square meals a day, and one hour of exercise at a free gym.

This clause is generally not exercised but it's good to check with the lender to be on safe side.

Sounds like an exercise in frustration to me.

The last thing you want to do is go through an exercise to come up with a short-list of cities with that in the back of your mind. 

Separately, if the buyer has an option to buy, but not contract, and option is exercised after 1 year, is that a capital gain?  

Often times sellers will get an option fee for this and the monthly payment will be higher (usually a percentage of which goes toward the down payment of the house if the renter ends up exercising their option/buying).Just something to think about.

Now this is an exercise in risk managementSteps to mitigating risk1. 

It wasn’t until 1/15/14 that Tope requested to exercise his refund option.

., and then exercise the option when you are ready to close. 

How do you think a 2008-esque housing market would affect the Charlotte area specifically? Are you positioned to make it through to the other side?