Delivery of Earnest Money

On February 12th 2018 The Texas Real Estate Commission approved several changes to our state promulgated contracts.

Perhaps the biggest change has to do with delivery of the earnest money.  The older version of our contract did not have a specific time to deliver the earnest money to the title company.  The new version does. 

Now a buyer has three days after the effective date to deliver the earnest money to the title company.  If the last day to deliver falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday the time for delivery is extended until the end of the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday. 

If the earnest money is not delivered as outlined above the seller can now terminate the contract by giving notice to the buyer.  If notice is not given and the buyer delivers the earnest money after the last day the seller can no longer terminate for non-delivery.  After day three the seller must terminate before the buyer gets that earnest money to title.