This home is “Active” – Really?

With all of the foreclosures and short sales on the market now in the DC Metro area, I am finding that the definition of an “Active” listing is no longer a black/white thing.  It seems that most listing agents are now considering it a certain shade of grey.  It used to be that “Active” meant that a home was available…there may have been an offer submitted, but the sellers had not agreed to terms, and the home was fully available for buyers to see and submit an offer on!  However, now, many times I am seeing remarks in the listing comments - stating things such things as “No More Showings! Bank has accepted offer!”  Really?  Then why have you not changed the status to “Under Contract?”  I can almost understand if you are just hoping for a better pending contract if there are contingencies, (there’s also a category for that by the way!  It’s called CKO – contingent with a kick-out clause), but if you’re not allowing a home to even be shown, why keep it listed as active? 

This is especially frustrating when you have clients who have been searching via an IDX link that doesn’t provide the full listing information.  All they see is “ACTIVE,” not the extra notes from the listing agent.  In addition, many of the agents put the information only in the Agent Comments, so that they are not visible to the public at any point.

Perhaps the most interesting facet to this whole dilemma is that the economists and media track pending sales as an indicator to the strength of the real estate market.  Knowing what I know about “Active” listings, I think the pending sales numbers would look a whole lot better and give a truer picture of the market as a whole if listing agents would accurately update the MLS!