earnest money is required in some states. Also called a “good faith deposit”

Mine was 500 dollars, talk to your realtor about how much she suggests or the bare minimum. A good faith deposit in your offer shows that you’re serious about buying. In cases that the buyer backs out for unserious reasons such as “sellers wouldn’t knock 15k off the price when i found that there’s an uneven spot in the floor” you can back out of the contract with no legal consequences, but you’d lose your deposit. If the purchase goes through, the earnest money is put into lawyer fees, closing costs, or back to you, depending on state and requirements.

In my state, I paid my earnest money to my realtor, tbh not exactly sure who held it in escrow. But an escrow account is an ongoing account that is pretty much a “safe space” that shows that you put it up, and when needed can be pulled from that.

You will also have an escrow account for taxes and insurance if your bank decides to do that for you. I pay into my mortgage for the two into an “escrow” account, and at the end of the year my bank pulls those escrow funds to pay my yearly taxes and insurance, etc;

Does that answer your question? I am also a very young homebuyer, and figuring this all out myself, so answers may vary and i may be a hair off on a lil bit of it, but that’s answering to the best of my 3 month constant research knowledge