We have all had it happen: Loan commitment is due, and the buyer's agent goes silent—not returning the listing agent's calls, texts, or emails. I believe that, all too often, the buyer's agent (and/or the loan officer) IS IN COLLUSION with buyers they know are not qualified to fulfill the contract—and this is an ethical concern for our industry. Even when they are representing a buyer, the buyer's agent has an ethical duty to be truthful with all parties.
The only remedy for the seller is keeping the EM when a deal actually gets terminated after loan commitment. To that end, 
hopefully, the earnest money amount is actually enough to compensate the owner for lost marketing time. No amount of earnest money is probably going to cover amounts the seller spent to satisfy inspection requests made by the lost buyer. That is a very good reason to be careful when agreeing to make capricious changes in order to "hold onto" a buyer under contract. No amount of money will be enough to compensate a seller who moved out of their property to accommodate a closing, either.
No financial recourse exists for the listing agent who has lost marketing time and has put in office hours working on a deal that has gone sour or wasn't a good one from the start. A property under contract is cold on the market, and rejuvenating a marketing campaign is costly for the listing agent who now likely has to "double down" to try and attract another buyer quickly. A reasonable amount of EM helps protect the seller and the listing agent, though.
Does the buyer's agent have liability in regard to her client's lost EM? Probably not, and the loan officer gets off scott free, as well. The loan officer is often much more to blame in these scenarios than the buyer's agent, though, as only the loan officer knows the client's true financial picture. We have all had loan officers "go silent" on us when we are buyer's agents, also. As a listing agent and as a buyer's agent, I know who those loan officers are in my market. I do not recommend them to buyers, and I am cautious when I am representing a seller who gets an offer accompanied by a lender letter from one of the "stall expert" loan officers. Loan officers who lie to agents do so at their own risk. Agents know that you cannot tell us everything, but we also know when we are being avoided.
Sellers and buyers both have much to lose when deals fall through. Overly long loan commitment time frames hurt sellers and agents on both sides of the deal...but that's a topic for another blog.
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