How much earnest money in this market?

[Aibutiej]

Well, as a seller, I would like to ask for 5% in earnest money. Ideally, the buyers would have it (because they should have at least 10% down payment). If the sale goes through, it's no problem. But a large amount like that might make the buyers not walk at closing and if they do, at least I would get something for my pain. I do think this is very different in different locations, though. I have not heard anyone talk about a binder and I remember from previously buying a house, that first came the binder (which was a smaller amount) and then after the contract was finalized, came the earnest money. When the time comes, I'll be asking my Realtor what I can expect.

[scone]

Depends. What's "normal and customary" in the local area? How expensive is the property? How hot is the market? How motivated is the seller? Stuff like that.

[tamitrail]

Even if I were putting 10% down, that doesn't mean I have to put that amount in escrow. Now, while I haven't bought a house in a little over two years, $1,000 is customary here. The rest gets put down at closing.

[Aibutiej]

I will of course be finding out how things work here in CT, but $1000 seems like nothing. When I told my husband that many buyers are walking out at closing, he said, "but then they lose their ernest money." But come on, who cares about losing $1000 if it means not buying a house? That wouldn't deter enough people. If my buyers walk at closing, I'll be losing much more than $1000. Doesn't seem fair. (Yeah, I know, life isn't fair.)

[dj32]

We had 50K (thank GOD since our buyers walked day of closing). This was a place a bit over 1M
We were going to do 25K (pretty customary at this price point) and our realtor said "in this market you never know". Thank goodness indeed. We did 25K at the place we bought.
Of course the downside is that everyone knew we got the 50k so they discounted their offer price for that. We lost far more than that ultimately on our sell.