The Contract Deadlines Buyers and Sellers Miss

A signed contract isn’t the finish line — it’s a list of deadlines. Inspection objections, financing contingencies, title review, appraisal: each one has a date attached, and missing one can cost a buyer their earnest money or a seller their sale.

Most of these dates are negotiable if you catch them early and communicate clearly — an extension request sent the day before a deadline lands very differently than one sent the day after. Keeping a simple calendar of the contract’s actual deadlines, separate from the closing date, solves most of this before it becomes a problem.