Legal Question in Real Estate Law in North Carolina

Re: standard land and building contract

The answer is probably. If you tell the Seller you want to terminate the contract and that the Seller can keep the earnest money, they will most likely sign a termination agreement. Technically the Seller would have other remedies. They could potentially sue you for specific performance to force you to purchase the property (which would be very rare and without further research, I'm not even sure if that has ever been done successfully in NC from a Seller's side) or sue you for damages due to your breach - for instance if they sold the property for less money.

The practical answer is that this is usually a waste of time and money so if you don't want to purchase the house, you will probably only lose the earnest money.