Remind them of that when you are presenting your final offer.If they balk,walk out on them and let time eat at them a little and then give them a hard deadline to accept the deal.Never let a seller know how much you really want the property.Make them really want to sell it to you.

The money from the hard money lender was not going to be available in time to meet the seller's deadline (I'd already paid him $500 for a two-week extension), so I cashed in my IRA and borrowed money from my parents to buy the house.

Was pre approved but didn't find a suitable property before pre-approval deadline.

I am saying so, because usually, the bank, after accepting my contract, sends back a "seller friendly" contract of their own that needs to be signed and returned before a deadline.

No government-imposed deadlines.

You've likely missed your window, given that most states have deadlines to report damage, and you implied that there was nothing more.  

Write a clear lease with guide lines and deadlines.

Update: I was contacted by several HMLs after posting here and reaching out via the list on BP and was able to get my offer submitted with LOI by the deadline today.

If the bank takes 5,10, 100 days to send the payment, then they need to submit the payment early enough that it still gets there by the deadline.

My career is deadline driven and I may be focused on a deadline.2.