I had a short sale listed years ago for $64,000 and an investor buyer put down $64,000.  He mistakenly thought B of A would move faster.  They did not, he got tired of waiting and withdrew his offer.

My jusband handles this.

3% which in California is the max you can take in deposit if things fall through and it is on the buyer.  

Usually it is 3% here in CA. But if someone pays cash and does not care about contingencies, a large EMD would make the offer much stronger.

We never had a buyer who would agree to give more than 3 % of transaction( typical for CA), and to tell you the truth, I don't see any benefits for buyers to pay more. 

I've had a full price earnest money deposit for a $500,000 purchase of $500,000 and we closed in 7 days.

5000

10% once.

$480,000 3%

Our average in my area is 2-3% of the purchase price. However, I had a buyer who really wanted a particular house. He offered full price, put up 6% deposit and made it non refundable after 12 days for inspections and appraisal. On a $600K purchase price, that got the attention of the sellers. Yep, he got the house.

Interesting and some very impressive numbers.

$50,000 on a $320,000 sale. It was totally unnecessary but it went through.

Only $10K.

Wow-I love reading these posts.  Great information

Keith-Three percent is standard in Silicon Valley.  In most cases nowadays that 3% is more than the entire sales price of the first home I sold in 1976, which was $28,000.

I handled one Earnest Money Deposit for more than $200,000 on a $7M house in 2012.

A few years ago the CA Association of Realtors purchase agreement was modified.  It defaults to the buyer wiring the deposit into escrow AFTER an offer is accepted, and no check is given to the buyer's agent.  

I've had one buyer escrow the entire purchase price of $150,000 plus and another escrow $25,000 on a $600,000 purchase.  I am impressed by  the high escrows in the responses!

In representing buyers in multiple offer situations, I have often had buyers put in a $100,000 earnest money deposit.  The largest was this past fall.  A client had been beat out a few times and was making a "pre-emptive" offer on a property.  Listing agent hadn't set an offer date yet and it was just on the market for a day.  Client  offered $950,000 and included a check for $950,000 with the offer.  It was accepted but the escrow company couldn't cash such a large check but...it did make an impact! 

$8000, 20% from an investor on an REO. Our market is notorious for low EM. I've had co-op agents bring me offers on listings over $200K with $500 EM.

$25,000 on a $92,000 purchase (27%) - given for a low offer on an otherwise good home where it was evident the seller was in dire straits. Buyer wanted to be sure he had the attention of the seller!

thanks everyone for your answers

10% of offer price is our normal amount, but that has been coming down with the slump in the economy.  About 15 years ago I got $250,000.00 earnest on a 1.8 million offer.

$50,000 is the most I have had. Here most buyers do 1% unless they have it and want to offer strong offer in multiple offer situation.

In NYC it was 10% of the contract price; here in Charlotte it's 1-2% of contract price. I've rarely had anyone want to give more than what is the accepted local norm.

$5,000 for a new construction. (We have first deposit with the offer, usually $1,000.)

Most of the buyers in this area offer 300 to 500 dollars for earnest money, however $1000. is usually the most.

$40,000...it was for the full amount of the purchase price.

2% or $28,000

I have had over $10,000.  I don't like doing that, because if there is issues beyond arbitration, that is over small claims court.  Generally the larger ones I've done have been development, and you place larger earnest, especially  after inspection.