Deposit? What Deposit?
What Happens to the Deposit?
When you make an offer on a home in Montpelier or a home in Barre, you’re going to have to make a deposit. Typically, a deposit ranges from 1%-5% of the purchase price. As a buyer, you can always go higher, and higher deposits are generally seen as "sweetening the pot" to a seller.
Typically, the deposit is held in a trust account by the listing agency. Personal checks are fine. The check will be deposited when your offer is accepted. So, if you need to transfer between accounts, it's good to do that right away. Because, um, bouncing a deposit check is kind of embarrassing.
At close, the money “comes back to you” in a few possible ways:
- A check is written to you in the amount of the deposit
- A check is written to the Seller in the amount of the deposit, and it’s considered part of the down payment
- A check is written to the closing attorney who then writes another check either to you (as in #1) or to the Seller (as in #2)
Vermont has a very buyer-friendly slant in real estate purchases. In the Montpelier and Barre real estate market, it is true that deposits are sometimes forfeited to the Seller, but only rarely. Working with a Green Light Real Estate buyer agent, we can help ensure you have the proper protections in your offer to ensure that, in the event you don’t buy the house, your deposit is returned.
In the Montpelier and Barre real estate market, by far, the most usual circumstances in which Sellers keep the deposits are when Buyers are paying all cash and have put down a small deposit. For example, putting $1000 on a $175,000 cash offer on a house. If, after the Buyer has gone through all the contingencies, they whimsically change their minds at the last minute, the Seller is likely to keep the deposit.
If, as you’re moving through the escrow period, it starts to look as if the purchase isn’t going to work out, talk to your Montpelier or Barre buyer broker, and make sure you’re protected.
Become an expert in Montpelier and Barre real estate. Call or email Green Light Real Estate