What does “Pending Sale” Mean?

Atlanta MLS listing Pending Sale.  Many times Atlanta homes buyers that are searching for homes on the Internet contact us to ask us what the term ‘Pending Sale’ means.  Basically, what it means is that you are too late and that no other offers are being considered on that MLS listing.  A listing that says “Pending Sale” is going to closing.  It is totally under contract!  The parties to the sale have removed all contingencies on the property listing such as inspection, due diligences, and financing… and the next step in the sale is the closing. When you tell this to callers they cannot believe it!  This happens a lot to persons that believe they are searching for homes on the MLS just because the home appears to be active on the Internet…when it isn’t. They erroneously believe they do not need an agent, and are enjoying the adventure of searching for a home on their own. However, they are too late!  They cannot believe that each home they look at is no longer available.  The reality is quite different…they are really just viewing ads on the Internet instead of live MLS data. The Internet is not the same live data that Atlanta real estate agents use to search property.  It is an advertisement media similar to real estate books, magazines and ads.  It is not the MLS. 

The term ‘Pending sale’ or Pending’ means the home is going to closing and that no other offers are being considered.  If you are search for homes on the web, you may be making the same mistake that many potential home buyers are making…they assume they are looking at live data in the the Atlanta MLS, they are not.  What buyers are looking at is a shared listing of other brokers called “Broker reciprocity” or “IDX.”  That data is only required to be updated in many cases once a week.  So you may be missing out on a lot of fine homes that would have been available to you if only you knew about the updated listing or status change. 

If you are working with an Atlanta home buyer’s agent they could have easily set this up for you.  This way, you will be notified automatically if a new listing comes on the market, the price is reduced, the home has come back on the market, or that the home has changed status and is no longer available.