US Practice of Deposit with Boat Purchase

[ErikFinn]

Hi,

I'm a newbie here and would need some advice. I live in Europe but have my eyes on a sailing yacht for sale in the US. I made an offer on the yacht yesterday and today the broker replied with the following:

" Before we submit any offers to the seller we request a 10% deposit of the offer price and a signed purchase agreement. Let me know if you wish to proceed and I’ll attach an agreement."

My question is: Is this the normal procedure in the US? The broker wants the deposit BEFORE submitting the offer to the seller ? To me this sounds dodgy, to say the least. What if the offer is not accepted..?

I thought the normal procedure was to require the 10% deposit AFTER the offer has been accepted...

What say you?