Do you normally add a deadline to respond when submitting an LOI?

by a searcher

2 weeks ago

I submitted an LOI on a company 3 weeks ago. 

The broker kept having an excuse as to why is wasn't signed yet.

 then yesterday the broker told me another offer came in from someone with experience in the industry and the seller is leaning toward accepting 

 So now I'm thinking I should have put a deadline to respond.  So my question is what's a reasonable deadline? 2 weeks?

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45 comments

searcher from The University of Arizona - Eller College of Management

I've had multiple brokers abuse the timeliness in me, 4 in a row actually. These were competitive deals and being a self funded searcher with an SBA, I'm generally not as preferred as PE or a big strategic. If you have a broker that sits on your offer or does give a formal response in that time, I've become very aggressive with pulling my offer with no update to the deal. If I'm not getting red line feedback on my offer in the time frame, just realize you are being shopped and used to drive PE or a strategic into action. So yes you have to out a time frame in and you need to be firm, never update without a counter back in the time frame.

4 days ago | like reply | 0 likes

professional from University of California, Berkeley - Haas School of Business

I always put in a deadline date with a clause that the date can be extended by mutualconsent.

5 days ago | like reply | 0 likes

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