I work in a RE office and we generally hold earnest money deposists for our buyers in our own client trust account. Not all brokers have their own client trust accounts, so then the EM would go to the title/escrow company. I have not heard of the EM going to the listing broker's CTA. As a buyer, I would not like that, and would prefer the deposit to stay with my own broker or with the title company.

I think it depends on where you are. Here in Mass, we are not a title state. Attorneys handle closings. In my part of the state, the listing agency holds the earnest money in an escrow account.

thanks so much mpinto and terricks.

Our state has title companies because when we bought this house our earnest money was held by them. other states we have lived in were the same so I was more familiar with deposit or earnest money being held there not with the listing agency.

I didn't even think about how the buyer would feel if the money was held by the listing companies trust account - good point.

it seems like in this area (Florida) every real estate office is different with their methods and contracts. Californa was much more standardized from my experience.

Here EM either goes to the Title Company or the Listing Brokers account.
Some listing brokers have an interest bearing EM account and the earned interest gets donated annually to a charity.

Here in Florida, management of the escrow account is highly regulated by the state, whether it's at a title company or at the broker, so neither buyer nor seller should really worry about it. The rules about earnest/deposit checks are pretty strict, such that we have so many days to deposit it and if the contract is broken, the broker has rules about giving the money back.
The last house I bought, the earnest check was stapled to the offer contract, so the listing agent deposited it, but the deposit (after contract approved) went straight to the title company.