Might want to give him the benefit of the doubt because of that.

If you and your agent fully vetted the buyers before accepting the offer and you're confident they will close, you could give them the benefit of the doubt and just have the agents keep pressure on the loan officer to get this closed.  

But given that it has a loan against it I doubt anyone would want it.

I doubt could command a price 15k over a house that was 370 sqft larger, assuming that property was in pretty good condition, which it sounds like it was.

I have no reason to doubt his professionalism at all, but I also have many concerns about investing in houses that are outside of driving distance even though he has property management in place to handle the day-to-day.Can anyone discuss their experiences with Clayton or know of anyone that has purchased properties through him? 

The rent and deposit are what they are; if I have any doubt about a person and/or their pets I don't rent to them.

Since it is a garage, I doubt that if you don't perfect the finish, anyone will notice or care. 

If they stand on their own, I doubt the HOA covers those things.

So, if you really believe that you can rehab a 1900 square foot family home with $10,000 dream on, but people do and it's always, what I call a basic mop and glow.To make a point, I took a 1292 square foot cement brick (built 1964) house in a predominately working class neighborhood.

I'm glad we were able to hash this out and I'm hoping we can one day meet as I've done with @Keith Andersonand many other great investors who had doubts about it being "too good to be true".