Posted by Ed Copp (OH) on December 05, 2006 at 19:12:04:
Good consideration can be anything, not necessarily money. Your intent to purchase can be good consideration. Your offer to purchase needs to be specific. If money is deposited with the seller it needs to be spelled out. What happens to the money needs to be spelled out in the offer to purchase. If the purchase is conditioned on other events then the contingencies need to be spelled out exactly in the offer to purchase.
Once the offer to purchase is written in such a way that everything is understandable, and both the buyer and the seller sign the offer it then becomes a contract. It is nearly impossible to enforce items in the contract that are not spelled out exactly.
So you ask if we get signed recipts, the answer is yes. The delivery of earnest money is usually a stated item in the contract, and the parties sign the contract.