Earnest money at risk? What would your strategy be?

I could use some advice…

I am in the process of purchasing my first home in Seattle.  I put 25k down in earnest money ( the house is selling for 499k.)  My agent set up a closing date of march 10th ( too soon in my opinion) and I am quite sure we won’t make that date.  I am scheduled to waive my financing contingency in less than a week according to the contract. While the loan has been approved,  my concern is that I am putting this money at risk because we won’t meet the close date–despite the fact that the loan has been approved and everything else is solid ( credit, salary, down payment, etc.)

Now, I do realize, in most situations the sellers would not drop out of the deal just because of a common delay when everything else looks good to go.  In this case though there were multiple offers on this home the first day it was on the market because it’s a great deal–in good shape in a nice neighborhood and selling for 123k less than what it was purchased for in 2006.  there is also a full price back up offer behind mine.

With all that in mind, and my fear of the worst case scenario– if I waive the financing contingency and the loan doesn’t close on time  they may opt not to be flexible they could  choose to keep the 25k, and take the next back up offer, leaving me in the dust!  So, I am thinking it makes sense to get them to agree in writing before I waive that to extend the closing if necessary.  At this point though we’d be renegotiating the existing contract and they could just opt to go with the other offer instead….

Not sure if I am being too paranoid here but 25k is a lot to risk….

What would you do in this situation to protect that money and still have the opportunity to buy the house?  My agent says not to worry–it would never happen but I don’t totally believe  that advice.

For example, if I want to buy a house for $ 70,000 and fix it up with say $ 30,000, would I get one loan (mortgage) for $ 100,000 or would I need multiple loans?