I received a call recently from a frustrated buyer. It seems she made an offer on a house eight days previously and still had not received an answer back from the seller. She believed that since a deadline was placed on her offer the seller was obligated to answer her within that deadline.
That is a common misconception. In fact many Realtors also believe the same myth.
The only thing the deadline on your offer does is limit the time for which the offer is good. If the seller wants to accept your offer just like you wrote it he must do so before the deadline. If he accepts your offer after the deadline, then it still isn’t a contract unless you agree in writing to the extension.
It is common courtesy for the seller to respond within a reasonable time frame, but there is no legal reason why they need to respond at all. If they completely ignore your offer, then your offer expires after your deadline and you are free to offer on another house or make a second offer on this one.
There are a couple of caveats to the above comments.
If you have more questions about this, leave a comment.