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Real Estate Is One Of The Best Long Term Investments You Can Make

Buying a home can be an exciting prospect. Having a Realtor who is familiar with procedures for short sale and foreclosure purchases, and is aware of local market conditions will help you reach your goals. In addition to an extensive knowledge base, communication and reliability are key elements to a smooth home buying experience. My history of repeat clients and referrals is evidence of the quality of service I provide.

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Understanding MLS Status

You may find it helpful to understand the MLS listing status when searching for a new home. Here is a brief explanation of some statuses you may come across in your searches.

Active – These homes that either traditional listings (Non-Short Sale/ Non-REO) or REO (Foreclosure or Real Estate Owned/Bank owned) and are available until they have an offer accepted by both the buyer and the seller.  Keep in mind that REO acceptance on an offer can take a couple weeks in some instances so even though the status shows active; it is no longer available because the bank has given a preliminary acceptance either by voice mail or email and the listing agent is just waiting for the contract to be signed by the bank.

Active Release Clause – This is a listing with an accepted offer that has a contingency such as the buyer selling their home. The seller has an agreement with the buyer that they will continue to market the home. If you were to make an offer on this home and the seller were to accept, the current buyer would have a specified amount of time to remove the contingency (usually 72 hours) or cancel the agreement, which would allow you to become the new buyer.

Active Short Sale – A short sale by MLS definition is one which, if sold at list price would not generate enough revenue to pay off all existing mortgages and expenses of sale and require an agreement by the lenders carrying the mortgages to accept less than the full amount.

Active Court Approval – This is a listing that needs court approval in such cases as probate or trust sales.

Active Court Contingent – This listing has an offer and is awaiting Court Approval.

Pending – These listings have an agreed upon contract,  and it is now in the escrow stage of the sale.

Pending Bring Backups – These listings have a signed contract as above but until all contingencies have been removed the seller would like to accept back up offers in case the buyer backs out of the deal.

Short Sale Cont. (Contingent) – An MLS listing with this status is one where there is an accepted offer between the buyer and the seller which has been sent to the bank for approval.   At this point the seller may choose to accept back-up offers or not, depending on how the bank holding the first mortgage processes their short sales.

Sold – These listings have gone through the escrow process and a new owner is recorded on title.

Expired – A listing with this status has gone beyond the listing agreement expiration date.  It may or may not come back on the market but is no longer available under the current listing.

Withdrawn – A withdrawn listing has been pulled from the MLS by the listing agent and is no longer available. The seller could have changed their mind about selling or in the case of a short sale, the property could have gone into foreclosure.