I have a question for those who have recently bought a house...
How much earnest money did you put down? We are getting ready to make an offer, $240,000, on a house. I am concerned that the inspection will not go well because of a few issues with the house. I want to be walk away if needed without losing a lot. How much did you put down?
This will vary by region, but for us it was $10K. However, there was an inspection clause that stated we could void the contract if we discovered something wrong during the inspection and all money would be returned to us. This is pretty standard so you should not be in a position to lose any money just because you pull out after the inspection.
On the house we are in now, we put down $1K ($180K house). The house we have a contract on was a spec house and the builder required a certain percentage of the purchase price so we put down $3,250. Make sure you read your contract and are clear on when you can get out of it and still get your money back.
We put down $6k on a $420k offer, but like Kaylie said, we had a standard "Inspection" clause in our sales agreement, so we weren't at risk of losing any money at all.
Thanks everyone for your input. We ended up putting $500 down. We did get the house. We don't close for almost 2 months per the sellers request. I am almost tempted to keep looking for homes even though we have an agreement with this house. Right now there is not much on the market. But I expect that to change around the first of spring...