How frustrating it can be.  You have made an offer on an REO and provided a deadline, but the bank has made contact with your agent and pushed it back.  It happens all the time and here is why.

Don’t be misled, the lender is trying to make a decision in a timely manner and attempting to force the issue is not going to work out to your advantage.  This is one of the biggest differences between dealing with conventional home purchases and REO or real estate owned purchases.  Each lender has their own process of evaluating offers to determine which one is the best to accept.  The highest bid is not always the winner.  Generally, a lender is looking for the strongest buyer. 

To determine the strongest buyer, the lender is going to look largely at the financing.  Has the buyer been pre-approved? What is the down payment? Will the buyer be using their bank to finance the mortgage? Your real estate agent and real estate attorney should be able to help you in submitting a strong offer, but depending on the number of offers a bank received, it could take some time to receive a response.  Your agent or attorney should stay in contact with the bank to be certain they have all the information they need and to smooth any wrinkles in the process.