Earnest Money Deposit Not Refunded

[Kristin Caras]

We just made an offer on a triplex that looked great, but turned out it needed about $30-60k worth of HVAC work from our inspection report and contractor bids (it was an old property and the system turned out to be totally shot). We had an inspection contingency clause in the contract that we could back out based on the result of the inspection and have the money refunded. 

The clause says exactly: 

“...If the Seller and Buyer cannot come to an agreement on rectifying the problem then the contract will be deemed null and void and the earnest money will be refunded to the buyer without interest.”

Our realtor is saying that in order for us to get our money back, the seller needs to sign a release and it isn’t looking good and we may never get this money back. 

Is it common to run into scenarios where you don’t get your earnest money back even if it is in the contract? 

 I understand there is a cost to doing business, but I don’t know how common/uncommon this is for the future or if something is wrong here. Deposit was only $500 but can’t obviously continue to pursue multiple properties if each time there is a chance we’ll be out $500.