Zillow is a real estate search engine that provides information on homes for sale, home values, rental listings, and mortgage rates.
In addition to providing housing data for nearly 100 million US homes, Zillow also provides many tools that allow users to buy or sell a home or find a new place to live.
If you are thinking about buying or selling a home, you have probably heard the term “pending” floating around. So what does pending mean on Zillow?
We’ll be discussing what pending sale means for buyers. Pay close attention because you need to be 100% aware of exactly what this means to you.
Make sure you read on to find out all about it 🙂
What Is A Pending Sale
Pending is a term that can be used to describe the listing of a home that has not yet been sold.
When a home is pending it means that all negotiations have been met between the buyer and seller.
The buyer has finished the inspection process and requested repairs or contractor quotes have been met.
Pending listings should not be confused with expired listings, which means the listing has been removed by the seller because it did not sell.
This word typically appears on Zillow, which is an online real estate marketplace.
When you are browsing on Zillow you will see the pending sale marked with a red dot next to them. Right next to the red dot you will see the home say pending.
How Does The Pending Status Process Work
The most common reasons that homes go pending are due to offers being made on homes and the owners of the homes accepting the offers.
For example, if you see a home that you want to purchase on Zillow you will first gather your information about each home that you intend to view.
The next thing that you would do is you would call up your Real Estate Agent to ask to go view the homes.
If you see a home that you like, you would ask your Real Estate Agent to make the offer to the Listing Agent.
The Listing Agent will then present the offer to the owner.
Once the offer goes to the owner it’s up to the owner to accept the offer that you have presented
Once the offer is accepted you then move forward with your Active Option Period.
This happens because at the time of your offer you asked the Owner for an Option Period.
To have an Option Period you have to make sure that your Real Estate Agent puts the information in the Option Period section of the contract.
During your option period, you will normally call out inspectors or contractors to make sure that you are ok with the condition of the home.
Once the option period is over you then, move forward with the home going into pending status.
What Does NAR State About Pending Sales
According to NAR, status changes must be updated in the Multiple Listing Services.
Section 2.5 Reporting Sales to the Service:
“Status changes, including final closing of sales and sales prices, shall be reported to the multiple listing service by the listing broker within ___ hours after they have occurred.
If negotiations were carried on under Section 2 a. or b. hereof, the cooperating broker shall report accepted offers and prices to the listing broker within ___ hours after the occurrence and the listing broker shall report them to the MLS within ___ hours after receiving notice from the cooperating broker. (Amended 11/11)”
What this means, is the Listing Agent has so much time to make sure that the status change is changed from Active Option to Pending Status.
NAR doesn’t state how much time it is but typically this should be updated within a reasonable amount of time.
Also, NAR Says:
Section 2.8 Reporting Cancellation of Pending Sale
“The listing broker shall report immediately to the multiple listing service the cancellation of any pending sale, and the listing shall be reinstated immediately.“
If for some reason the buyers fail to perform and they’re unable to get financed, it means the offer has fallen through.
The pending sale would be canceled and the property would go back to Active Status again.
What Does Under Contract Mean On Zillow And How It Differs From Pending Sale
If you have seen this word appear in a contract on Zillow, I’m sure you have wondered what it means.
A home is considered to be “under contract” when both buyer and seller, agree to a purchase price of a property.
This is the process of making an offer. When the offer is made to the seller by the buyer and the seller accepts.
Typically, the listing agent will put in what is called an execution date.
Once the contract has been signed and the execution date has been put in the contract.
The property is now under contract. Therefore changes will be made to the status on Zillow showing Active Option or Pending Status.
When you see the pending status it means that the Active Option period has ended.
And if the buyer has decided to move forward with buying the home the property is now placed in Pending Status.
Why Is It Important To Know If A Home Is In Pending Status
Keeping up with status changes is very important when you are purchasing a home.
One of the main reasons why is it saves you time. The goal is to not waste time on properties that are currently pending.
Although, there are times when status changes happen and a pending property might come back on the market.
In cases like that, you can always save these properties and come back to view them within 30 days.
The reason we say 30 days is typically residential loans can take close to 30 days to process.
Sometimes, depending on the amount it can take a little bit longer. But mostly, 30 days would be an idea for a loan to finish being process.
So put properties that interest you that are Pending Status on your saves and if you haven’t made offers on other properties you can come back to view the property to see if the property has been sold.
If for some reason you no longer see the listing on Zillow, it’s a good indication that the property has sold, or the listing has expired.
So make sure that you are focusing your attention on Active listing.
If you see Active Option properties you like you would place these properties also on your saved list.
You would have to communicate with your Real Estate Agent to find out when the Active Option ends and then see if the property goes in pending status.
If for some reason the property doesn’t go in pending status then you can consider putting in an offer on the property if the property shows back Active.
Another thing you can also do is put in backup offers on properties that you do like and shows under contract.
Most sellers will welcome a backup offer on the property.
Conclusion
I hope that this article has given you some valuable information on what pending means on Zillow.
When you see the word pending sale you know now that it means that the property has been placed under contract and the buyer has finished all inspection, repairs negotiations and the property is now being finalized for closing.
If this post was helpful or if you have any questions about how “pending” may affect your search results, please let me know! I would love to chat with you more about real estate marketing strategies that work best for buyers like yourself.