Boston

[Ergwhyme]

Is the $1000 earnest money traditionally submitted with the initial Offer to Purchase document presented to the listing agent/sellers in MA? Or is it acceptable to submit the Offer to Purchase sans the personal check and submit the $1000 at a time with the signed offer?

[Alex]

Ergwhyme,

The $1000 earnest money deposit is typically submitted as a copy of the check with the initial offer and then delivered physically if and once the offer has been accepted.  Sometimes this is not the case but it has been decided in our MA real estate culture that physically delivering the check with the initial offer causes undue work and risk for both parties (heaven forbid a listing broker with 12 offers lost a check!!).  So the answer is really yes, you don't have to actually give the deposit to the listing broker until you have a signed offer but you will need a copy of the check with the initial offer.  Hope that helps! 

Thank you,

[Ergwhyme]

Thank you for your quick answer. I framed the question for situations where the initial offer is rejected outright (too low of a price, unacceptable contingencies, etc.), making the submission and subsequent return of a check seem like  unnecessary additional work. And it appears that the MA real estate culture agrees with that concept.