My friend is wondering if he can use a personal loan to cover an EMD.

[Nik Frid]

My friend is wondering if he can use a personal loan to cover an EMD (Earnest Money Deposit)? And if possible what online services can help with this?

[Derek Brickley]

From the financing side of things, it gets a little tricky. Although there is nothing stopping you from doing that to cover your EMD, we would not be able to apply that EMD towards the purchase. We would end up "backing" those funds out of the transaction as if it never existed since it isn't secured funds. So you would need to come up with the funds at some point anyway if you are using financing. At that point, there isn't really a benefit of doing so.