I was having doubts about purchasing the home I presently own. My realtor told me that if I backed out of the purchase after having paid the earnest fee I would not get that money back. Did he lie to me?

I believe he spoke the truth. Most purchase agreements contain a ‘default’ clause which one of the remedy’s is the forfeiture of the earnest money deposit. Some contracts give the seller more options than that. There could have been other clauses or provisions in your contract that made certain parts of the ‘process’ contingent (or subject to) that taking place. For example, contingent on you getting a mortgage. In the event you were denied, you might have been able to get your deposit refunded in full. Another common contingency is an ‘inspection’. If you had a clause making your inspection a contingency, then, depending on the wording of that clause, you could be entitled to a return of that deposit (as long as everything happened within the guidelines of the clause).In your case & from what you stated (I was having doubts), sounds like you had a case of buyers remorse, which is a normal emotion when buying a ‘big ticket’ item.