buyer will not fund

What is the name of your state? california
I am in the process of selling my home.everything had gone along fine,it was a 30 day escrow,all the inspections went well.
the buyers signed off all contingencys,however after 30 days my realtor notifyed me there was a problem with the loan company being slow and it might take 3 or 5 days longer,which i agreed to, as i did not want to lose the deal.then after about 10 days my realtor apoligized and told me they could not get the loan co. to fund and the buyers were going with another loan company that could do the loan in 5 days,as she said they were already approved by this company and that they were "strong buyers". i reluctany agreed(all verbal).well needless to say a week later she said the loan co. would fund in 3 to 5 days at the latest.then another week passed with still no funding.then she said they would fund by wed or friday for sure.that was last friday and still no funding!when i called the escrow company they said their package was at the lower end of the loan co. list. at this point we are 26 days past escrow ,the house is costing me about $100 a day to maintain(maintenance and lost interest).i have verbaly told her i would wait till this friday for funding,and at that time cancel the contract
there is a $5,000 deposit which i think i am entitled to,as i will have to list the house again and at a bad time of year.my concern is that if i cancel they can tie me up legally.what would be my best course of action?i'm at the point that i do not trust the realtor . and can the realtor attempt to charge me her commission

[Bigfoot]

Generally the Realtor is due compensation upon bringing a 'ready, willing and able Buyer. Does not sound like you have a 'ready' or 'able' Buyer.

Matters regarding the deposit may be spelled out in the purchase contract.

[JETX]

Your 'rights' to the earnest money are strictly noted in the agreement. At this point, you need to start formalizing all of this. Make sure that your agent sends a letter to the buyers agent advising them of a 'drop-dead' date for closing. If they property does not close by that date, you will void the agreement. Note that if this happens, there is very little chance of you having rights to the earnest money.

[HomeGuru]

And stop all the verbal communication nonsense and start putting things in writing. What is the matter with your Realtor?

Thanks for the info,I tend to trust to much--from here out everything will be in writing.As an added note she was representing the buyer also,seems she favors the buyer more.
I think I will use the drop dead clause,i'll give them 48 hours to fund,I probably will not get the deposit.I just cannot understand why an agent would spend this much time on a listing (4 months shes had the listing,but its now expired)thank you for the replys from all of you.
carla

[HomeGuru]

On Tuesday, call and talk to your agent's principal broker.

I am sending an update on my real estate problem.after fuming all weekend, I decided that they were not going to win this one.I felt for all this delay they were not entitled to their deposit back.
after reading all the replys (thanks to all!)and researching other sites(not as good as this one)and also reading the contract closely,which had many,many clauses to the effect that if I cancelled without arbitration or mediation that I was not intitled to the deposit,and I really, at this point did not want to draw out the process any longer.
so I came to the conclusion that I would call the principal broker first thing after the weekend,however I recieved a call from my so called realtor and during our discussion she said it would be absolutly no problem to cancel,she even seemed enthustiac about it?
by now I am very leary and asked if I would be liable for her commission,to which she replyed absolutly not--she would never do that!!and her reply to recieving the deposit ,she replyed---absoletly its in the contract!!!no problem, you would recieve it immediatly!!! and this is all verbal again.however I told her without giving up my hand that i did not think that would be in my best interest to cancel

so I asked her to fax all this information to to dated and signed---im still waiting.
when I called the broker,she also explained that loan companys are hard to deal with-etc,etc,etc--bla bla.
mind you I was prepared to retain an attorney,so she would check into it and get back to me.
well guess what----I get a call later in the day,and she had some good news for me-----THE LOAN HAS BEEN FUNDED!--and indeed it was.
it is now thursday(28 days past closeing date)and the deal has been completed,im sure I will never hear from her again---thank you lord!!!!.
I have no idea what happened here,but I speculate that had I cancelled,this deal could have been drawn out for months or she could have claimed I owed her commission and no returned depoisit to me and on and on.
so again I thank all of you for the input and I only hope this can help someone else out with a simular transaction(forgive my spelling im not the best)
carla

[JETX]

Carla, we are glad that this worked out for you. Good luck.

[HomeGuru]

ditto.