I recently made an offer on a house, which was accepted. My agent
filled out the "offer" paperwork, which I signed. Before sending it to
the seller's agent he was informed that the Ernest money needed to be
$5000 versus $1000. My agent said that this seemed a little high but
convinced me that in this market this should be acceptable. The
inspection period started after the last counter-offer was accepted
which was 05/03/2005 and therefore ends on 5/13/2005. Here's the catch
as it's related to the inspection period, which make no sense to me.

Apparently once my agent presents the inspection results to the
seller's agent with the list of things that I'd like to be repaired,
the $5000 goes hard (becomes non-refundable). With this in mind, my
agent has told me that he will not submit the results and my request
for repairs until 05/13/2005, the official end of the inspection
period. He tells me to do so would prematurely end the inspection
period. My question is: What's the seller's incentive to negotiate my
requested repairs if he knows that by me simply providing him with my
requested list of repairs he already has $5000 of my money? I thought
the inspection period would be a discovery period where I find out
about any problems with the house, and the 10 days are used by the
seller and myself to negotiate the repairs for the purchase of the
house? Is this just the way it is? Thanks in advance for your thoughts
and opinions.