If a real estate purchase contract specifies that earnest money must be deposited within 4 days after acceptance, when is the last day to make this deposit, assuming acceptance on January 25th?

The scenario presented involves calculating the deadline for depositing earnest money based on a specified timeframe after acceptance of a real estate purchase contract. When the contract states that earnest money must be deposited “within 4 days after acceptance,” it is essential to understand how to interpret this period.

Acceptance occurs on January 25th. The counting of days typically starts from the day after acceptance, meaning you wouldn’t include January 25th itself in your calculation. This means the 4-day period would include:

• Day 1: January 26

• Day 2: January 27

• Day 3: January 28

• Day 4: January 29

Thus, the last day for making the deposit is January 29th. This is important in real estate transactions, as meeting deadlines is crucial to ensure compliance with the terms of the contract. Failure to deposit the earnest money on or before this date could have implications for the validity of the purchase contract or might be seen as a breach of contract. Therefore, the correct answer is January 29.