Is this the contract used? See section 12

https://www.floridarealtors.org/site...ned%5B2%5D.pdf

Inspection standards

Home Inspection Standards of Practice - InterNACHI(R)

Use An As IS Contract Best For Both Seller and Buyer
 

If your agent stated you should get your deposit back make sure you speak with their broker. If the broker blows you off sue the broker. An agent cannot state you are going to get your deposit back. Both parties need to sign off to release the deposit. Your contract rules and if you do not understand your contract then the agent needs to refer you to an attorney. In Florida if you did not sign a single agency agreement with your agent then they do not represent you as a fiduciary.

As a licensed Florida broker my advise to all buyers and sellers is use an AS IS Sales Contract. A buyer can cancel for whatever reason and if the buyer find issues they can negotiate with the seller what items they want fixed. If it doesn’t work out the buyer gets their deposit back. The seller will get the inspection report and has the option of moving forward with the buyer or not. It’s the best contract for both the seller and buyer. As a seller I would never agree to a fixed price for repairs given my experience with idiot inspectors.

Ask yourself how many times do you want to pay a home inspector? Home inspector's pick out such crap on a home it’s ridiculous only to get you to pay them more money. You got an AS IS Contract your in control.

All buyers should get an insurance contingency. Buyers absolutely need one even on a new home in Florida.

Hope everything works out for you.

If it’s not an as is contract, you can ask the seller to repair ALL items in the inspection report.

Real Estate Companies CAN Hold Escrow Funds
 

I don't know if The Villages violates the law or not. But, the standard sales contract names an escrow agent to hold the earnest money. An escrow agent is defined as follows:

"The escrow agent is an independent third party in charge of holding the assets, documents, and/or money in escrow until the contractual condition is fulfilled in the terms and conditions established by the parties in the escrow agreement. The escrow agent might be a natural person or entity."

So, basically, the concept is that an independent third party controls the money, not the listing broker. The listing broker is not the decider for the earnest money. Some brokers try to intimidate buyers by leading them to believe that they control the earnest money. I think that a buyer should understand this legal concept.

This happened to us too, but not in TV. In Dell Webb. We canceled on 5th day due to a bad inspection. The sellers agent kept 1/2 our deposit and that was the best I could negotiate.
As of August 24, there is a Non As Is contract now called FRBAR. Most realtors are using it, so it seems.
If you have this contract, basically, there is no out clause.
It states the seller has the right to fix all issues on the inspection, if they do, you are stuck, even if for example 2 windows are leaking but 10 more are soon to leak. They fix 2, you are stuck with what's left down the road.

I would suggest reading your contract.
I called FREC, but they only help Realtors now a days. All you can do is print off a complaint form on the Department on Professional Regulations and fax or mail it in.

Did they send you a cancelation agreement and both you and seller signed? Did it say you would get your full escrow back?
You can always call the Escrow agent or Title Company to learn what's up.

Best of Luck..

Insurance quote in advance
 

With every new home we have considered purchasing in The Villages, we got an insurance quote prior to making an offer.

The OP has left the thread hanging...

Well, I hope Ernest gets his money back.

Comments
 

Some comments in this thread sure seem to make it “Not A Friendly Place to Buy a Home.” Most should learn to be safe with their money and purchase only after reading all of the documents! A little more than 50% finance, so if the home they wish to buy is uninsurable, the whole purchase ting is mooted anyway. All homes financed must be insured.

Marketing Slogan.

Not
 

Not really, it just underlines the huge risk if you decide a mortgage is how you want to buy a home here in the Villages. If you don’t pay cash, stay away because you have an increased risk of losing your deposit money on a home you like.

The marketing slogan has nothing to do with a mortgage decision, nothing to do losing your deposit, nothing to do with normal due diligence.

Even if you pay cash for the house, you still need to put up earnest money before the sales contract is finalized. As a buyer, I would try to use the lowest amount of earnest money acceptable to the seller. But, as a seller, I would demand at least $10K or more in earnest money, especially if the listing broker gets half of any forfeited earnest money.

Right
 

Yes, but the poor saps who need to have insurance for their sale to go through get slapped with forfeit of their earnest money.