You might see a real estate for sale listing marked as Pending or Under Contract or even Active Under Contract. What’s the difference? As we’ll discuss in-depth in the following article, the answer actually depends quite a bit on which state the listing is in.
For example, in New York you might see Pending or In-Contract depending on which website or MLS you visit, but they all mean the same thing. In New York, these are all synonyms for the listing having a signed contract in place, without elaborating further on whether any contingencies are outstanding.
In contrast, in other states like Florida, listings that have a signed contract will differentiate between Under Contract vs Pending, with the former generally meaning the buyer still has contingencies and the latter meaning all contingencies have expired.
In NYC there’s only one status for in-contract
In New York City, you’re more likely to just see a single status, typically “in-contract,” on popular local real estate websites such as StreetEasy. Furthermore, the de facto MLS in NYC, the REBNY RLS, doesn’t offer variations of the in-contract status either.
For example, a quick look at the available status options in the REBNY RLS show that agents can choose only the following options: For Sale, In Contract, Offer In, Sold, Off Market (Withdrawn), Temporary Off Market (30 Days).
In practice, listing agents never use the “Offer In” listing status, not only because accepted offers are non-binding in New York, but because listing agents don’t want to scare off additional potential buyers when they don’t have a signed contract yet that’s actually binding.
Variations in the rest of New York State
For properties listed outside of New York City, you might see variations of a listing’s contract status depending on the local MLS.
For example, the OneKey MLS which covers the Hudson Valley and Long Island has only the following statuses besides active: Cancelled, Pending, Sold, Temp Off Market, Withdrawn.
The Brooklyn MLS has even fewer options besides active. Agents can only change a listing’s status to Pending, Withdrawn or Sold!
As you can see, in New York the majority of MLS associations will simply use variations of “in-contract” or “pending” to describe their listings, without segmenting these statuses further into under contract vs pending as you might see in other regions.
To summarize, this is because in New York, accepted offers are usually sent via email by the buyer’s agent and are completely non-binding until the buyer and his or her attorney completes due diligence and signs the contract.
Pro Tip: When you see a listing on Zillow in New York with a Pending status, you can assume that it’s in-contract but you can’t assume whether it has any outstanding contract contingencies like a financing contingency. The best way to find out more is to ask the listing agent, or have your buyer’s agent find out for you.
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Accepted offers are binding in Florida
In states like Florida where credible offers are submitted via standard Realtor purchase contracts signed by the buyer, an accepted offer means the seller counter-signs the contract.
Therefore, accepted offers are entirely binding in states like Florida since the terms of the contract come into force as soon as the seller counter-signs and “accepts” the offer.
However, as you can imagine the contract will have contingencies that buyers will often ask for when they submit their offer, the most standard of which is the Inspection Period.
If left blank, this period defaults to 15 days, during which the buyer can do an inspection and other due diligence.
If the buyer doesn’t wish to proceed for any reason during the inspection period, he or she can back out and cancel the contract with 100% of his or her contract deposit returned.
Active With Contract vs Pending in Florida
Since accepted offers in Florida are binding, even if contingencies may exist, it’s the custom in Florida and many others states that use standard Realtor purchase contracts for the MLS to require the listing agent to distinguish between an in-contract listing that has contingencies still outstanding and one that doesn’t have any contingencies.
For example, the Miami MLS allows listing agents to choose the following statuses for their sale listings: Active, Active With Contract, Pending, Sold, Temp Off Market, Cancelled, Withdrawn.
As you can imagine, Active With Contract means a contract has been signed, but there are still contingencies outstanding such as an inspection or financing contingency.
Once all contingency periods have expired and the buyer has no further ways to get out of the contract, then the listing agent will change the listing’s status to Pending. This shows that a listing is no longer contingent, and should almost certainly be closing soon.
Pro Tip: Don’t assume that a cash deal will automatically be listed as Pending. That’s because even all cash buyers will want to take advantage of the inspection period to do due diligence on the property they’re potentially buying.
Contingent and Under Contract both mean the same thing, a listing that has a signed contract in place, but with contingencies still outstanding.
For example, a listing that has a fully signed contract might be marked Contingent or Under Contract depending on the website or MLS if the buyer has a 45 day mortgage contingency that hasn’t been waived or expired yet.
Contingent and Under Contract are just interchangeable terms, and one might be used vs the other depending on the website or MLS that’s displaying the listing.
As a result, don’t get thrown off or confused when you see a listing marked as Contingent and another marked as Under Contract. They all mean the same thing.
For example, we mentioned earlier that the Miami MLS has either Active Under Contract or Pending as statuses for in-contract listings. Active Under Contract is just another name for Contingent or Under Contract.
Pro Tip: Depending on the market, a listing that’s marked as Under Contract or Contingent might be highly likely to fall through in the first week or so that it’s in-contract. That’s because often times there will be an inspection period that allows the buyer to pull out for any reason or no reason.
