Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Wisconsin

It would be rare to have a valid real estate purchase contract which did not address the issue of how to handle earnest money, particularly if either a lawyer or a broker were assisting either party in drafting the contract. However, if this issue were indeed left open and there was indeed no contingency dealing either with how to handle earnest money or with financing, the outcome in court would be determined by the judge reconstructing the intent of the parties by tracing through all of the historical facts and circumstances and the application of common law concepts and case law to it. If it was indeed a "cash offer," the buyer would often forfeit their earnest money if they could not get financing, since the need for financing was not anticipated by either party in the negotiated terms of the contract. Instead, the cash offer implicitly represents to the seller that the buyer had sufficient cash to close without any need for financing, resulting a lower price due to a greater certainty of closing. Forfeiture of the buyer's earnest money would therefore be very common is such a situation. Please be aware that my responses to you in the public web forum do not make me your attorney and that I am not representing you or taking any action on your case. These answers are intended for public educational use only. Regardless of this, however, you are still welcome to contact me during business hours at my in Racine if you still have questions.