OP again. Thanks to everyone for your responses, it was so helpful. I went back to our realtor and confirmed that 3-5% is more in line with what's customary in our price range and market situation. Frankly, this makes a lot more sense to me, although I'm not sure I'd do 5% unless I really thought it would make the difference in getting the house. That is a lot of money.

Anyway, thanks again.

EMD's are worthless. In 2006 our AU Park buyer balked 2 days before the closing (no contingencies left) and we could not keep their EMD! Might be different in MD or VA but there are few situations in DC where a broken sale allows the seller to keep the EMD.

EMDs just tie up money at the title company. Make sure that the "give back" time (in case the inspection or appraisal fails) is less than 3 days, so you can be back in the market asap. Remember, the buyer picks the Title Co, so shop around for this and low title insurance costs and fees BEFORE bidding.

The realtor wants to make it less attractive for you to walk away from the contract if you get cold feet. We certainly did not put more down than we could have left on the table if there was a problem with the sale that wasn't covered in the contingency.

OP, ignore the nasties and welcome to the area! This is a good taste of the snark that awaits you. Plenty of nice people, but plenty of drama too. I came from a place where no one ever put earnest money down. We ended up putting 10k down. First time I learned what it was, was when the realtor told us asked us for it!

Anonymous wrote:Great bragging, PP, but OP is talking about earnest money, not down payment.

We had to put down both very quickly so it is the same thing to me. Its not bragging, but how does one do it. If you can't put down reasonable earnest money or a reasonable down payment, you cannot afford nor should be buying that house.

we bought a $700,000 house in 2010 in CC, and when we wrote the offer we put down $35,000 (savings, we did not have anything to sell). the total downpayment was 10% when we closed. in a competitive market, probably the more you offer the better your offer looks to the seller. but if you will have a lot of money in a month, I would not worry. just wait a month, or offer what you have now, or get a loan from family, bank or wherever

OP, we're in a similar situation - not a ton of extra cash at the moment and lots of cash tied up in real estate. We just put down $50K on a 1.75m house and that is all the seller required as earnest money. This is in 20815.

If it is a competitive bid process, I guess it might be a factor, but honestly I would thinkif I were the seller I would want to know you could close, not how much money we get to hold in the meantime. I doubt most people looking at a $1m to $2m house would walk away from $50K just for fun, you know?

Putting down 20% equity is not the same as the EMD.

What is the emd usually in dc?

Great bragging, PP, but OP is talking about earnest money, not down payment.

How did we afford it? We bought a house lower priced/payments that we could afford so just in case something happened, we could still manage. We saved and saved and saved and were able to put down 20% (and had a little bit of family help). How could we do it again... we save and save and save and live under our means.

We've just closed on a house in the 1.4m range after looking at probably over 50 properties in the MoCo area. At this price range it's a buyers market and don't let your agent tell you otherwise. Things are taking a long time to sell, and only prestine new or completely renovated homes that are fairly priced are selling in <60 days. Even then, hardly saw any competitive situations.

Completely different in the <850k end where everyone has cheap and easy conforming loans and smaller down payments - here I can believe 5% EMD because things are competitive and move fast.

Your realtor still thinks it's 2006, might want to switch...

Someone "advised" you incorrectly about EMD. If realtors think an abnormally huge emd is the best term out there, they had better think again. It's negotiable. We've bid on $1.4m properties and been fine with $25k emd. Just ask the seller why they feel the need to look up so much emd? In a lot of cases they do not get it even post-contingencies. Sellers should be more concerned about how their home wil appraise or inspect, as well as financial health of the bidder.

We put 10,000 in EMD on our 360k house 3 yrs ago- MoCo outside the beltway but not too far out.