Does the personal representative have authority to accept an earnest money deposit before the court confirms the sale

The assumption doing the most work here is that a signed purchase agreement in a supervised probate creates the same bilateral obligation it would in an ordinary sale. It does not, and that is the core of your exposure.

In court-confirmed probate sales, the personal representative's authority to bind the estate is typically conditional. They can accept a deposit and execute a contract, but that contract is subject to the court's approval. The confirmation hearing is where the sale actually gets made. Another buyer can appear, bid over your price by the statutory overbid increment, and the court can confirm to them instead. Your signed agreement does not give you a priority position at that hearing. It gives you the right to be the nominated buyer going in, which is meaningfully different.

On the $5,000: whether it comes back to you if you are overbid depends on how the purchase agreement is written and whether Ohio's probate code or local Cuyahoga County practice governs refund of the deposit in that scenario. That is not a general answer I can give you with confidence, and the estate attorney's "held in good faith" language is not a substitute for a written refund provision in the contract itself. Go back to the signed agreement and find out whether it contains a deposit refund clause triggered by court non-confirmation. If it does not, you want that clarified in writing before the hearing, and that answer comes from an Ohio probate attorney you have retained directly, not the estate's counsel.

The risk your title rep flagged is real. The estate's attorney represents the estate, not you.

Two practical things worth confirming now: whether you have the right to appear and bid at the confirmation hearing yourself, and whether Ohio's code specifies a minimum overbid threshold, because that number determines how much protection your contract price actually offers you in the room.

What does your purchase agreement say specifically about deposit disposition if the court does not confirm?

Your contract is almost certainly not binding until the court confirms it.

In a dependent administration, the PR has authority to market and accept offers, but the sale itself is subject to overbid at the confirmation hearing, meaning any buyer can appear and bid above your price. The signed purchase agreement functions as the opening bid, not a binding contract. Say the accepted price is $200,000: a competing buyer shows up at the hearing, bids $210,000, the court confirms to them, and you lose the deal. Your $5,000 should come back to you in that scenario, because the estate cannot keep a deposit on a sale that never closed, but "should" is doing real work in that sentence and Ohio probate procedure is specific enough that you need the estate attorney to show you the statute, not summarize it.

The priority question is where your leverage actually sits. Some probate purchase agreements include an overbid protection clause that sets a minimum increment above your price and gives you a right of first refusal to match. If your agreement has no such language, the signed contract gives you very little at the hearing. Read pages one through three of what you signed for any language about court confirmation contingencies and what happens to the deposit if the court does not confirm to you.

The phrase "held in good faith" almost certainly means it is sitting in the estate's attorney trust account, not commingled, which protects the dollars but tells you nothing about the legal posture of the contract itself.

Does your purchase agreement contain any court confirmation contingency language, or is it written as a straight sale with no mention of the hearing?

Ohio dependent administration, the PR can sign but the contract is genuinely executory until the judge bangs the gavel. Your $5k is not at risk of being kept, but it also buys you nothing if someone walks in at the hearing and overbids by 5 percent.

What I'd want to know is whether your purchase agreement has an overbid protection clause or a breakup fee built in, because some probate contracts in Ohio do carve out a nominal fee paid from the estate if you get bumped. Did your attorney or the estate's attorney draft the contract, and which form did they use?

The estate attorney saying it's "held in good faith" is doing exactly what you'd expect from someone who doesn't want to put the answer in writing because the answer isn't good for you.

What I've seen walking through probate flips and turnovers in the Columbus and Cleveland markets: the contract language on court-confirmation sales almost never creates priority. The overbid hearing is the actual sale event, and your signed agreement is more like a floor-setter than a binding deal. Another buyer can walk in with $5,250 and take it. What I have never seen work is someone arguing that a cleared deposit check implies the PR had authority to waive the confirmation requirement, courts treat that as a clerical misunderstanding, not estoppel, and you don't get the property, you get your money back minus weeks of waiting.

The real question is whether your purchase agreement has a court-confirmation contingency written into it, because if it does, your $5k is safe but you have no priority. If it doesn't, the contract is arguably void as against public policy since the PR lacked independent authority, which still probably means your money comes back but now you're arguing with the estate's attorney about timing while another buyer closes.

What does the actual purchase agreement say about court confirmation, is there a contingency clause in there or is that section blank?