The 3-Day Earnest Money Deadline
This is the one deadline in the contract that forgives a weekend. Knowing that is worth nothing unless you also know which deadlines it does not cover.
What is due, and when
¶5A: within 3 days after the Effective Date, the buyer delivers the earnest money and the option fee to the escrow agent named in that paragraph, at the address written next to the name. Both are made payable to the escrow agent and may be paid separately or combined in a single payment.
5A(1) is a separate line: additional earnest money of a stated amount, due within its own stated number of days after the Effective Date. It is often blank. When it is filled, it is a second money deadline nobody calendars.
The weekend rule that does apply here
5A(2): if the last day to deliver the earnest money, option fee, or additional earnest money falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or Legal Holiday, the time to deliver is extended until the end of the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or Legal Holiday.
It can push more than once. A contract effective Wednesday, July 1, 2026 has money due Saturday, July 4 — a Saturday and Independence Day both. Saturday pushes to Sunday, Sunday pushes to Monday, and Monday, July 6 is the deadline.
What counts as a Legal Holiday
The 20-19 defines it inside 5A(2): a legal holiday described in Sections 662.003(a) and 662.003(b)(4) and (6) of the Texas Government Code. That is the national holiday list in subsection (a), plus two of the state holidays named in subsection (b). The other state holidays listed in 662.003(b) are outside the definition.
Naming them, because "two of the state holidays" is not something a reader can act on. The two that do count are Juneteenth (June 19) under 662.003(b)(4) and the Friday after Thanksgiving under 662.003(b)(6).
The six Texas state holidays that are not Legal Holidays under this contract, and therefore do not move a deadline: Confederate Heroes Day (January 19), Texas Independence Day (March 2), San Jacinto Day (April 21), Lyndon Baines Johnson Day (August 27), Christmas Eve (December 24), and the Day After Christmas (December 26). State offices may close on those days. The contract does not care.
The 20-18 used the phrase "legal holiday" with no definition attached.
Short payments land on the earnest money first
5A(3): what the escrow agent receives under Paragraph 5 is applied first to the option fee, then to the earnest money, then to the additional earnest money. A payment that comes up short does not shortchange the option fee. It shortchanges the earnest money.
Late delivery, and the window that closes
5C: if the buyer fails to deliver the earnest money within the time required, the seller may terminate the contract or exercise ¶15 remedies, or both, by providing notice to the buyer before the buyer delivers the earnest money. That right runs out the moment the money lands.
5D handles the other half: a missing or late option fee costs the buyer the unrestricted termination right, whatever the days blank says.
Where the option fee goes
5A(4): the buyer authorizes the escrow agent to release the option fee to the seller at any time without further notice or consent, and the option fee will be credited to the Sales Price at closing. Both the 20-18 and the 20-19 read the same way here. An additional option fee paid to extend the option period on a TREC 39-11 amendment is different: that one has a will / will not be credited checkbox.
Stop counting days by hand
Drop your contract in at recontract.ai and every deadline computes itself: the Effective Date read off the execution block, the option period at 5:00 PM, the 3-day money window with the weekend rule already applied, the financing date off the 40-11, and the Closing Date. It is free, and the file is parsed in your browser.