Let us try to make it clear. As sdr said he does alot of short sales and he does not ask for a deposit. However others do.
Again to clarify, the deposit is no different then ANY deposit, in these cases the deposit is made to open escrow. If your realtor has half a brain, when your offer was submitted it was accompanied by a short sale addendum that clarifies things with respect to the deposit, as to when the contingency period starts, etc… On this addendum the clarification that none of the timeframes start until a written approval is received from the short sale lender(s) is present.
People love to try to blow things out of proportion. Some realtors who have short sale listings will accept an offer and will demand to open escrow and ask the buyer for a good faith deposit. You as the buyer will get your deposit back if you change your mind while you are waiting for approval. Other realtors do not.
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I would challenge ANYBODY here to show me a case where a deposit was made on a short sale and they did not get the deposit back from escrow if they changed their mind during the approval process.
