Preventing earnest money deposit loss?

[Yashasvi Soni]

Hello everyone,

So I found the one, the property I have been looking for. It's a 4 unit multifamily. This would be my first real estate investment, worth $450,000. Quite expensive for my first investment and I am bit nervous and wanted to get some advice. 

My questions: 

How do you go about making an offer to prevent earnest money deposit loss if you are skeptical about initial financials (income and expenses breakdown) received from the seller. Like what can I include in my contingencies so that if during my due diligence period I discover that the numbers don't work out or seller fails to support it with proof to prevent myself from losing my deposit? 

My situation details:

So, I requested the financials from the seller, past 12 months of income/expenses breakdown but only received past 3 months of info. Three out of the four units are currently vacant, seller is saying he has applicants for two more units but is holding since it's easier to show the property to prospective buyers, last time these two units were occupied was a month ago. Location is great and based on what I know about the area renting out the units shouldn't be a problem. However, I am skeptical about the financials I received (Property was built in 1926). I want to make an offer with 1% earnest money deposit, but as I said the I am skeptical about financials. It's just a one page hand written document that has utility bills, lawn, snow, & capital repair saving and that's it. Reason, I am not 100% sure about the financials is because I talked to the owner and he owns multiple other properties and has done deals worth millions of $ but the financials I received does't look like a work of an astute owner. Plus, it took him more than 1.5 weeks to provide this info since I made the request and then when I did receive the info he was like we have 3 offers in hand and want to make a decision within next two days. With the financials provided so far the numbers workout but I don't think I have all the parts to complete the puzzle. I have seen the property it's in decent shape and offer will definitely include inspection. What are your thoughts?