Many people have questions over listing status. This is a field, which
is often displayed next to homes or properties for sale on
many real estate web sites and they may vary by local MLS. For
the public, the most commonly
seen statuses for properties in Orange County, CA include:
Active, Active Under Contract, Pending, Hold Do Not Show,
and Closed.. Less commonly seen statuses include Expired,
Cancelled, and Withdrawn, although these are commonly seen by
agents. These
statuses are also identical for homes for sale, for lease, for
lots and land, and for income
properties (duplexes, triplexes, etc). What do each of these
statuses mean? Read on!
Here is a
recap of the listing statuses commonly found on the Orange
County MLS and related web sites
Coming Soon - A
newer status introduced just a while ago ( I believe at the
request of many real estate agents).."Coming soon"
means that the property will be available for sale shortly,
but the property is not quite ready to be shown. It may be
that the property still needs to be prepared or all the photos
have not been completed, etc. This is really for short term
use, as the status will be changed to Active automatically, if
the agent doesn't change it. It will always have a date that
the property will be changed to Active status. Many listing
agents will allow a buyer's agent to make an appointment to
show the property when it flips to Active. However, a listing
agent showing the property during "Coming Soon"
status will be in violation, so a lockbox is not allowed to be
on the property while it is in this status.
Active -
The property is now available for showings and for purchase (or
lease). This is the status that buyers generally look for when
they are seeking properties to purchase or lease. Note that
his does not necessarily mean that offers have not been
received; only that none have been accepted.
Backup Offers- Recently changed to
Active,
Under Contract - An offer was accepted on the property and escrow was opened,
however the seller will still accept backup offers. This
status is commonly used during the 17-day buyer contingency
period, while buyers are examining and inspecting the property
and related documents. They may still cancel the purchase
during this period without risk to their earnest money
deposit. Although the chance that the buyer may cancel the
purchase is small, it is more likely that they will cancel
during the contingency period (Backup Offers) than later, after
contingencies have been removed (Pending). The "Days on
Market" (DOM) counter keeps adding days while in this
status. Also, once it's in this status, clients will often ask
me what the house sold for. Unfortunately, I would not know
that information until the property closes, as the listing
agents generally keep that information confidential.
Pending Sale -
This status is
commonly used after Backup Offers (Active Under Contract) status. This means that the
buyers have removed all contingencies like loan approval,
inspection, disclosures, etc. The buyer's intent to go forward with
the purchase is higher than with Backup Offer status, as the buyer's
earnest money deposit may now be at risk if they cancel
after removing all contingencies.. Also, the "Days
on Market" (DOM) counter stops with Pending status.
Closed Sale - The property has
closed escrow and has been successfully sold. All
information about the sale, like the closing price, date
closed, which real estate brokerage bought the property, and
if there were any concessions, will now be available to the
public. Prior to closing, most listing agents will not
disclose the terms of sale to other agents, as the closing is
never in certainty until close of escrow.
Leased -
(no
longer used) Same as above, but for leases.
Expired -
The listing agreement has expired with the property remaining
un-sold (or un-leased). There may be several reasons why the
listing expired, but the main reason is that the property did
not sell (or lease) during the listing period and the property
owners have decided to take the property off of the market.
the sellers may choose to re-list the property, but it will often be with
another agent than the one who initially listed it. Very
often also, the sellers will be willing to drop the price a
bit for the new listing, if the reason for not selling was too
high a price. The "Days On Market" (DOM) counter
will start fresh for the updated listing. However, another
"days" counter called CDOM (Combined Days On Market)
will still track the total days on the market for both sales
periods. Only exception is if the property has been in expired
status for 90 days or longer. Then, the "days"
counters will all reset to zero.
Cancelled -
This status is similar to Expired, but it refers to a
situation in which the seller of the property and the listing
agent have agreed to cancel the listing prior to
expiration of the listing agreement. The listing agent no
longer has listing rights to the property (no longer under
contract) and another agent is free to re-list the property if
the sellers so desire.
Hold - This status obviously
indicates that the property is not available to be shown at
this time. This status can be confusing to the public, as
there may be many reasons why an agent chooses to place a home
in this standing. These can include: 1) The listing agent has
already received multiple offers and does not feel that
further showings would be productive. 2) Home owner reasons,
like visiting guests, on-going maintenance, owners are out of
town, etc. 3) For a lease, they have an accepted applicant but
do not yet have the paperwork or deposit check. Since there
can be many reasons for this status, I usually call the
listing agent to see if I can find out the specific reason,
and also to determine if showings will be available again in
the near future.
Withdrawn -
Same as Cancelled above, except the property is still technically
under contract to the listing agent for the remaining duration
of the listing agreement. It may not be re-listed with a
different agent until the original agreement expires, or, if
the listing agent and seller agree to cancel the listing agreement
prematurely.
Related
links
I hope the Listing Statuses
article was educational for you. If you have additional
questions about listing statues or other items on the MLS,
please feel free to give me a call at (949) 290-3263
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