absolutely december and january for me....holidays put a huge dent in tenant's bank accounts...but by late jan. and february come around, tenants are getting their refunds back just in time to give me a deposit!!

John you could add a contingency that covers SPECIFICALLY clear title and your right to cancel and receive the full earnest money back in that instance.The provision can also have a specific time limit for the seller to clear title or you back out.I set up contracts on short sales in a similar manner.I don't give earnest money until "upon acceptance" in writing from the bank.I also put a time limit on it.If the bank can get the short sale through in time great.If they can't I am not obligated to go through with the deal but I still can and I don't have the earnest money tied up in a contract forever.

I'm not a very good negotiator, but by changing my attitude and hence my MO, I got it done and the interactions with the closer were actually pleasant.

To do this, you should really be planning to hold the asset based on what you know at that point in time, but you should understand that the future may bring things beyond your control.

At this point in time, my business model (to be honest) is straight up @J Scott Style!

By using an interim "guarantee" you are placating the seller in the hopes of securing financing in time to get final financing done, which may or may not happen.

Anyway I got lucky because when the Marshalls posted the 24hr notice they had a pleasant sit down with the tenant. :)  Tenant high tailed out by next day... this was about 3-4yrs ago.

You could be in a different spot where you know the area intimately, have a really good pulse on renovation costs, etc. 

In time, it generally takes people a couple months from beginning to end. 90 clock hours is a long time.

At this point in time in the example scenario its time to create a rough SOW so I can get a fairly accurate rehab estimate to plug into my flip formula (MPP = Sales Price – Fixed Costs – Desired Profit – Rehab Costs).