[Tina29]

I put in an offer on 6/1/09 on a short sale and it was accepted on 6/12/09. I was wondering when will my EMD be cashed. Will the check be cashed as soon as the contract was accepted by the seller or will my check be cashed as soon as the bank accepted the short sale?

[jjameson922]

Your earnest money deposit is kept with the real estate brokerage company in a non-interest bearing account. You might want to check with them to see when they will be cashing it. Typically, no funds are transferred to the seller until closing.

[olecapt]

What does your contract say? Normally a short sale has a short sale addendum. And that normally says your check will be deposited one day after the lender provides written approval of the contract.

We do not generally use broker accounts in Nevada. They are provided for but generally avoided. Checks are normally made out to the escrow company and cashed by them.

Short sale is a special circumstance and the check is generally held by the buyer's agent until the bank approval is received.

This should all be in the contract or its addendums.

[007 license to sell]

Originally Posted by Tina29

I put in an offer on 6/1/09 on a short sale and it was accepted on 6/12/09. I was wondering when will my EMD be cashed. Will the check be cashed as soon as the contract was accepted by the seller or will my check be cashed as soon as the bank accepted the short sale?

Your earnest money check is generally held by your buyers agent until the contract is accepted. Once the contract is accepted, the buyers agent must deliver the earnest money the title company. Once this happens, the earnest money check can be cashed at any time. You can expect that the earnest money check will be cashed within three days of contract acceptance.

Short Sales - if the owner of record accepts your offer, Escrow MUST be opened within 24 hours .
ESCROW MUST BE OPENED IN 24 HOURS - $10,000 fine to the realtor if they don't

There are NO EXCEPTIONS

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by 007 license to sell

Your earnest money check is generally held by your buyers agent until the contract is accepted. Once the contract is accepted, the buyers agent must deliver the earnest money the title company. Once this happens, the earnest money check can be cashed at any time. You can expect that the earnest money check will be cashed within three days of contract acceptance.

Short Sales - if the owner of record accepts your offer, Escrow MUST be opened within 24 hours .
ESCROW MUST BE OPENED IN 24 HOURS - $10,000 fine to the realtor if they don't

There are NO EXCEPTIONS

007 you are dangerous and wrong. The deposit of the earnest money check is routinely delayed until bank approval by a short sale addendum.

An escrow opened with no money is kind of a funny escrow...

Again this stuff is driven by contract...read the contract to see what is to happen.

[chepascual]

My agent opened an escrow and cashed my emd a few days after the seller (not their bank) accepted my short sale offer. There was no short sale addendum on my offer (first timer!).

How do I know if the escrow was 'really' opened? My bank which normally has check image return has no image for this withdrawal so I can't confirm. Should there be a receipt/document/escrow number I can request my agent?

Am I just being too paranoid? I too wanna get out of this deal...

[changyai]

I would be worried. The escrow officer contacts you very soon after the deal is made. I've wondered if people were running a short sale scam around here. Looks like you may be the first victim to come forward.

One question: Who did you make the check payable to?

[chepascual]

I made it to 'Lawyers Title.' I wasn't contacted by the escrow officer. Hmm... I'll do some more digging tomorrow.

[olecapt]

As long as it went to Title it is almost certainly OK.

NOt normal practice however. YOu avoid tying your clients money up for months while a short runs its course. I might suggest my client put up $100 to open escrow but mostly I use the addendum which states that the escrow check will be deposited one day after bank approval.

Nothing illegal however about using a regular contract and EMD. Just ties your client up in a long term thing likely to fail.