Sometimes you try to break new ground in a real estate blog. Other times, you ride on the coattails of others, take a concept and make it your own. Consider this to fall squarely in the latter category ... today we introduce "Ask the Agent" (which, knock on wood, will be Ask the Broker within the next few months.

Have a real-estate question you want answered? E-mail me and I will answer it here.

Q: Are sellers required to respond to contract offers within the timeframe specified on the AAR contract?

A: Required? No. But sellers do run a risk if the buyers' timeframe is not met since an offer is valid only until the time specified for seller response. A buyer receiving an offer acceptance after the response period has expired is not required to follow through with the contract.

Realistically this scenario rarely happens; the buyer obviously wanted the property in the first place so they ignore the late response and go through with the contract. But in situations where buyers are making offers on more than one property and have no preference as to which one they purchase (read: investor) the seller does run a risk by not responding in the timeframe allowed.

All of this assumes the buyer has provided the seller sufficient to review the contract, with an attorney if they feel that step is needed (though it very rarely is), or without. In last year's hysterical market it wasn't uncommon to see response periods of a few hours, as buyers were not willing to allow the seller the opportunity to collect additional offers once the original had been submitted. In a more normal market, however, 24 hours has become more or less the standard response period.

(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Daltons Arizona Homes