Anyone familiar with real estate law ?

Real short, qe are looking at buying a house, put in an offer and put down an Earnest Money Deposit

The offer was accepted but when the bank did the appraisal it came up short


We were not able to renegotiate a new deal and it the seller now told me he has an offer from someone else for 5K over my last offer


Here is my question "is he allowed to entertain other offers before signing the paperwork to release my EMD"

It seemed to me that EMD locked him in with me