is there any legal way of breaking a contract with a real estate agency without having to pay a monitary penalty?

Question

is there any legal way of breaking a contract with a real estate agency without having to pay a monitary penalty?

Answer

It depends on your reason for wanting to break the contract. If there is a contingency in the contract which is met (for example, the sale is contingent on you getting financed at a certain rate or contingent upon inspection of the property and the property only needing a certain amount of repair) then you can terminate the contract. If there is no contingency or it has not been met, then no, you are not entitled to a return of the earnest money.

So what I would do is read the contract.