Florida Escrow Deposits and Going Hard: Transaction Step 6

You wrote the offer. It got accepted. Now your agent is asking for a check, and the contract has two deposit lines on it with two different deadlines. This is the step where a Florida deal stops being theoretical and your money is in the middle of it — and where buyers most often misunderstand what they have put at risk. Here is how escrow deposits work under the current Florida Realtors/Florida Bar "AS IS" contract, who is actually holding your money, and what people mean when they say a deposit "goes hard."

Two Deposits, Two Deadlines, One Blank Line

Paragraph 2 of the AS IS contract has room for an initial deposit and an additional deposit. They are separate commitments with separate clocks.

The initial deposit either accompanies your offer or is delivered to the Escrow Agent within a number of days you fill in. If that blank is left empty, the form supplies 3 days after the Effective Date. The additional deposit works the same way, with a default of 10 days after the Effective Date if the blank is not filled in.

Two things trip people up. First, those are calendar days, not business days — Standard F uses calendar days for computing time periods, with the saving grace that a deadline landing on a Saturday, Sunday or national legal holiday rolls to the next day that is none of those. Second, a blank is not an absence: if nobody writes a number in, the form has already answered for you, and you are bound by that answer.

So when a deal goes under contract on a Friday afternoon in Winter Garden, the clock on that initial deposit is already running through the weekend. Know your date before you sign, not after.

Where Your Money Actually Sits

The contract names an Escrow Agent in Paragraph 2, and in Central Florida that is usually a title company or a closing attorney — though a real estate brokerage can hold escrow too. Which one it is changes the rules that apply to your money.

When a Florida broker holds the deposit, Florida Real Estate Commission rules govern. The broker has to get those funds into the escrow account promptly — the standard is within three business days — and if the buyer and seller later make conflicting demands on the money, the broker has to notify FREC within 15 business days and start one of the recognized settlement procedures within 30 business days. When a title company or an attorney holds the deposit instead, those particular broker rules do not apply to them; Paragraph 13 of the contract and their own professional obligations do.

Either way, the person holding your money is not a party to your deal and cannot pick a side. That is the whole point of escrow, and it is why nobody can hand the money back just because you asked nicely.

New construction is its own animal. In the Horizon West villages, out toward Minneola, and across the Davenport and ChampionsGate corridor, buyers are often signing a builder's own contract rather than the AS IS form — different deposit structure, different escrow handling, and Florida law sets separate requirements for deposits taken on homes under construction. Read the builder's escrow language before you write the check.

What "Going Hard" Actually Means

"Going hard" is industry shorthand, not contract language. You will not find it in the AS IS form. What people mean is the moment your deposit stops being realistically recoverable if you walk.

Under the AS IS contract that moment is not a single event — it is a series of doors closing. While your Inspection Period is open, you can cancel for essentially any reason and your deposit comes back. Once that period expires, that particular escape hatch is gone. Your financing contingency may still protect you through the Loan Approval Period, and title and survey issues have their own remedies. When the last of those protections lapses and you simply change your mind, you are exposed.

There is also a deliberate version. Sellers in competitive situations sometimes ask for a deposit to be released to them, or declared non-refundable, at a set point — often when the Inspection Period ends. That is a real concession with real consequences, and it is written into an addendum rather than hiding in the standard form. If somebody puts that in front of you, read it twice and have your agent and your attorney read it too.

How Much Should You Put Down Here?

There is no statutory amount. As of October 2026, industry guidance across Florida still points to roughly 1% to 3% of the purchase price as the common range, with stronger offers in competitive situations going higher. That is a norm, not a rule, and it is negotiable like everything else in Paragraph 2.

What matters more than the number is the structure. Splitting into a modest initial deposit and a larger additional deposit due after the Inspection Period lets you signal that you are serious without putting the full amount at stake on day three. In a multiple-offer situation on a Windermere or Horizon West listing, a well-structured deposit often reads stronger to a seller than a slightly higher price with a thin deposit behind it. Out in Clermont and Ocoee, where you are more often up against one or two offers rather than ten, there is usually room to keep the initial deposit conservative.

This is a conversation we have with every Bella Trae Realty buyer before the offer goes out, because the deposit is one of the few terms that costs you nothing to get right and a great deal to get wrong.

When the Two Sides Disagree

If a deal dies and both parties claim the deposit, the escrow agent cannot release it on one side's say-so. It takes a written agreement between buyer and seller, or a decision from a neutral authority.

The AS IS contract routes disputes toward mediation first. If a broker is holding the funds, the FREC settlement procedures come into play — and note that FREC will issue an Escrow Disbursement Order only for disputes of $50,000 or less; above that, the parties are left with mediation, arbitration or court. An escrow agent can also file an interpleader and hand the money to the court to sort out.

None of these are fast. A disputed deposit can sit untouched for weeks or months. Which is the real argument for getting Paragraph 2 right at the start, and for cancelling inside your contingency windows in writing, on time, every time.

Up Next

Friday brings a standalone explainer — Florida Real Estate, Defined: Contingency, and the Four That Matter in Florida — unpacking the escape hatches that decide whether a deposit comes home. If you are about to write an offer, or you are a seller trying to read how strong an offer really is, contact Bella Trae Realty today and we will walk the deposit terms with you line by line.

This article is general education about how Florida transactions typically work. It is not legal, tax or lending advice — confirm current form versions, figures and rules with a licensed Florida professional.