Pending

‘Pending’ status means an accepted offer has been made on the home. It is ‘Pending’ on the completed sale, and the home cannot be shown as it is already under contract.

There are 4 things needed for a home to go Pending:

1. A written offer by an interested buyer. Verbal agreements mean nothing in real estate.

2. The written offer must be received by the
sellers Realtor.

3. The offer (and all terms) must be signed and AGREED to by both the Buyer and the Seller. Once received by the sellers, there are 3 responses they can make:

A) Accept the offer
B) Counter the offer
C) Decline/ignore the offer, or let the offer expire. The seller does not have to respond to an offer.

In our current sellers market, there is a very high chance that the home will have multiple offers from interested buyers. The sellers Realtor may contact a buyers Realtor about items in an offer the sellers are considering countering. We will discuss counter offers in depth next month.

As for option C, the seller does not have to respond to an offer if they choose not to. Choosing not to respond to an offer is the same as letting it expire. The seller can also choose to formally respond with a rejection. Sometimes, a buyer will want to make an offer just to see what the seller says. Yet, when the seller ignores it, the buyer gets upset. I will say it louder for those in the back… the seller doesn’t have to say anything, or respond to an offer at all if they don’t want to.

4. The mutually agreed upon purchase/sale agreement must be received by the buyers Realtor.
The mutually signed around offer (aka purchase/sale agreement) must be received by the buyers Realtor to be pending sale. Even if a buyers Realtor receives a phone call that the seller is accepting their clients offer, it is still not confirmed. Remember, verbal means nothing. Until that mutually signed around offer hits the buyers Realtors email box, it is not mutual.

Making an honest offer may not get accepted every time, but it will make your offer more solid, and more likely to close when you do get it accepted. I tell my seller clients all the time, “The best offer isn’t always the highest offer. The best offer is the one most likely to close.”

Remember that verbal means nothing, and time is of the essence. Remember that you can’t return a home like an Amazon purchase. If in doubt.. DON’T! As your Realtor, we really want you to LOVE your home, and still love us the next day.