How long it takes to close on a house depends on many factors. Are you paying cash? Are you financing? Is there a tenant? If you're paying cash and the house is empty then you can close as early as a week since you won't have to work with any lenders. If you are using a lender then the typical time is 30 - 45 days.
It's possible to buy a home with no money down if you are doing a no money down loan like a VA loan and have the seller cover all of your closing costs. Normally you would have to put earnest money down but that also can be negotiated. For an FHA loan you usually have to put down 3.5% and a conventional loan you would have to put down around 5%. The more you put down the easier it is to get a loan and you will also get a better interest rate.
If you need to sell your home before you purchase a new home you can always try to negotiate a contingency that states that in order to purchase the home you have to sell yours first. Typically you only have a few days to get your home on the market once a contract is accepted. It's best to use the same escrow company for both transactions to make it go through smoothly. You can also close on both of the properties on the same day.
Earnest money also know as good faith money is the money you put down to show the sellers that you are serious about buying the home. You can get the earnest money back if you have contingencies and they don't go in your favor like an inspection contingency.
Usually the earnest money would go towards your closing costs. If you're doing a no money down loan and the sellers are paying your closing costs then you would get the earnest money back. If the sellers are covering your closing costs put you have a loan that requires a down payment then it would go towards the down payment.
In Washington state the contract states you must put something down as value. It can be a penny or even jewelry. Typically it's 1% of the purchase price but buyers will put down a lot more if there are multiple offers to make their offer stronger.
DOM means " Days On Market " it counts from the first day it was listed on the MLS.
Earnest money usually gets paid to escrow once a contract is signed and goes towards your closings costs. If a buyer gets cold feet or decides not to purchase the home for any other reason than what contingencies they have in place then the seller can keep that money. A down payment goes to your lender and is used to pay off some of the home. For example if a buyer is purchasing a $100,000 home with 20% down then at closing the buyer would give the lender $20,000 and the new loan amount would be $80,000.