Delaying the Effective Date of a contract

[William Morgan]

Our CA company routinely offers property for sale on the MLS. The way it normally works is;

1. We sign a Purchase agreement with a seller.  
2. Change the "Active" status to "Active under contract
3. Wait for the Buyer to submit their deposit to escrow

There are occasionally problems where the Buyer gets cold feet and never submits a deposit. We then reverse the transaction (which can take numerous days) and remarket the property, meanwhile our interested Buyers many times have moved on. Rather than changing the MLS status from "Active" to "Active under contract", I am wanting to legally make the effective date of the Purchase agreement the date the deposit lands in escrow. i.e. no deposit, no agreement. I am wanting to create an additional term in the purchase agreement that spells this out. This way I do not turn away other interested Buyers by changing the Status in MLS until we at least have the deposit requirement met.

Question: Is it possible to use Additional Terms to make the effective date of a CAR Purchase agreement become effective only if, and on the date, the deposit requirement is met and therefore NOT have to call the property Under Contract in the CA MLS until that happens? So rather than the property being considered "under contract" before a deposit has been applied, can it be written as to be effective on the date the deposit has been applied?

Here's why.  We have a property that had multiple offers.  We accepted one, and the Buyer is on their 4th business day without a deposit in escrow.  Meanwhile, our other buyers were told another offer was accepted and basically went a different direction (and they were not interested in a backup position).  So here we are in a toothless agreement, potentially disadvantaged by there being no deposit applied.  While it is true the buyers will have an inspection period, we could have kept the deal on the market all of this time they are dragging their feet.  Sure we can deliver a Notice to Perform and allow an additional 48 hrs for them to comply but in the meantime, we're dead in the water.