house sale pending for 123 days

[retire-early]

A house in my subdivision went to Contingent then to Pending after 123 days.

I am guessing the seller was waiting for the buyer since on Zillow, it showed Contingent then finally Pending.

In this hot market, did the seller's agent not do her job properly?

Is there any circumstance to wait on a buyer in this hot market?

 

[RunningBum]

Maybe the first, and maybe even the second buyer may have backed out. Some contracts were signed without the buyer even having seen the house, but they knew they could see it and get it inspected before closing, and back out if the house wasn't what they thought. And many houses got plenty of offers so there might have been a line of contingent buyers.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Could be an estate sale undergoing probate, could be in foreclosure which would require lenders approval, could be anything...

 

[plex]

In the market area I've been watching, this has been happening a lot in the past month. A seller is lined up and the sale is pending, then the seller backs out and it is relisted, this happened about a dozen times in that area, when previously it hadn't happened all year before. Pretty clear sign of a pullback, how strong of one, I don't know. But once the foreclosure moratorium ends, combined with the drop in building costs+the increase in building, I suspect...it won't be pretty.

 

[Sunset]

Our house was like that.
It was owed by 3 different folks in different parts of the Country.
They all had to wait for everyone to sign it.
I had them agree to rent it to me for $1 for the months it took for them to sign the papers.
None of them trusted each other, since one had previously "sold" the house to her daughter far below market price, and had to "unsell" it or go to jail.

 

[retire-early]

Could be an estate sale undergoing probate, could be in foreclosure which would require lenders approval, could be anything...

Definitely not in foreclosure or an estate sale.

I was thinking that maybe the buyer made such a good offer over the asking price the seller is willing to wait.

 

[Aerides]

Could be zillow just hasn't synced up with the county records for that one listing. Could be anything.

If you aren't interested in that house, who cares.
If you are, contact the listing agent and ask what's up.

 

[retire-early]

In the market area I've been watching, this has been happening a lot in the past month. A seller is lined up and the sale is pending, then the seller backs out and it is relisted, this happened about a dozen times in that area, when previously it hadn't happened all year before. Pretty clear sign of a pullback, how strong of one, I don't know. But once the foreclosure moratorium ends, combined with the drop in building costs+the increase in building, I suspect...it won't be pretty.

I don't think it hasn't been relisted, because realtor.com seems to show listings for the same property.

I have noticed that houses are no longer getting snatched up within days of listing.

One that did go into Pending within 2 weeks was listed for $50K less than other houses in the subdivision. They had an open house on both Saturday and Sunday and then requested all bids with supporting documentation of pre-approval by Wednesday.

.

 

[retire-early]

Could be zillow just hasn't synced up with the county records for that one listing. Could be anything.

If you aren't interested in that house, who cares.
If you are, contact the listing agent and ask what's up.

I live in the subdivision and plan on selling most likely next spring so what happens is of interest to me.


.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Sometimes there are terms which the sellers and buyers agree on which can stretch out closing. My home was never listed for sale so it did not show up on MLS. In October 2020, our realtor found us a buyer 3 days after we spoke to her. Buyers wanted > 3 months closing because he wanted to get a mortgage on our home and they just applied for a mortgage on a home that they just went into contract in California. They wanted to make sure that home closes first before putting in a new mortgage application. They could pay cash but prefer to borrow. They waived mortgage and appraisal contingencies. For our "trouble", they doubled the earnest money and the money was released to us after a month. Win-win.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Back in March one of the offers on our house was from a out of state buyer who only saw the house online. I didn’t even consider it as I was concerned about it. We had 4 offers so could be choosy.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Back in March one of the offers on our house was from a out of state buyer. I didn’t even consider it as I was concerned about it. We had 4 offers so could be choosy.

Majority of the homes here whrre we live are now sold to out of state buyers, mainly from California, Washington and Oregon.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Not surprised as a big percentage of our buyers have been Californians for years. But many drive or fly to Nevada. Our buyers were buying the house for their college age son to live in while attending college. I had my condo purchase dependent on my house sale going through so that was my biggest concern. Their son got to choose the house. It’s a good investment for his parents.

 

[idledancer]

Anything decent here is assured 10+ offers. According to our agent what ends up happening is a buyer puts in a huge offer, and then the seller take multiple backups. However, the huge offer buyer never really expects to pay that much, they’re hoping to knock the price down after they have the house tied up under contract. If the seller doesn’t play ball, the buyer walks after a couple weeks and the backup offers come into play, but the backup contracts try to pull the same nonsense. This can go on for awhile.

 

[Koolau]

This can go on for awhile.

Probably not if seller demands enough earnest money - especially if this practice is becoming rampant in the area. One would hope your realtor is one step ahead of this play but YMMV.

 

[2HOTinPHX]

I would check on Redfin.com as the records there seem to be updated more quickly then Zillow for some reason. To me Zillow is like the car dealer that still shows cars for sale that have long since sold.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

A house in my subdivision went to Contingent then to Pending after 123 days.

I am guessing the seller was waiting for the buyer since on Zillow, it showed Contingent then finally Pending.

In this hot market, did the seller's agent not do her job properly?

Is there any circumstance to wait on a buyer in this hot market?

It's not hot right now in some markets. Deals fall through all the time for a myriad of reasons.

I would check on Redfin.com as the records there seem to be updated more quickly then Zillow for some reason. To me Zillow is like the car dealer that still shows cars for sale that have long since sold.

Depending on where you are, the syndication may flow differently from it's original listing. Zillow is very finicky and my DW (who is in R/E and uses almost all the syndication services) absolutely hates Zillow because it is prone to pulling the wrong info and it's a pain to correct. Redfin isn't without issues but I don't hear her complain about it nearly as much.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Zillow seems pretty quick updating in my experience. I think it's a bit different now that they are in the RE game themselves and I trust them a bit less. In my small community (28 townhomes), Zillow bought one without it hitting the market. Of the 8 end units, it is the least desirable, and Zillow bought it for $435K, they immediately put it on the market for $454K and it was showing under contract two days later (`17 days after they bought). Not a huge mark up but then they pocket the 3-6% coming and going so not a bad return for a few weeks of tied up capital. Interesting to me is that the Zestimate range for that unit the other day was showing $50K higher than others that are more desirable unit within the community.



Its crazy but I feel much better about what I paid in 2019 (I thought it was too much then but was a desirable location and nice place for me). It might be hard for me not to sell if I could net $500K but then I'd need to rent or buy in this market!

 

[tryan]

First time buyer using FHA financing ... 4 months is very common. Way to many hoops/hurdles including a seperate inspection.

 

[RunningBum]

First time buyer using FHA financing ... 4 months is very common. Way to many hoops/hurdles including a seperate inspection.

Common? I'm sure it can happen, but I've never heard of it. My son just bought his first house, not sure if was FHA, and he closed in less than 4 weeks.

 

[Sunset]

Anything decent here is assured 10+ offers. According to our agent what ends up happening is a buyer puts in a huge offer, and then the seller take multiple backups. However, the huge offer buyer never really expects to pay that much, they’re hoping to knock the price down after they have the house tied up under contract. If the seller doesn’t play ball, the buyer walks after a couple weeks and the backup offers come into play, but the backup contracts try to pull the same nonsense. This can go on for awhile.

Which is why the seller can be attracted and accept a zero conditions offer, even if its a few % less than the oversized offer.

My neighbor did just that, had two offers without conditions among his offers. He took the sure sale at only 6.7% over his asking price.

 

[retire-early]

Update.

Even though both realtor.com and zillow.com shows that the sale of the house is pending, redfin.com had the correct information.
The house sold on June 14, 2021 over 2 months ago.
This information is in the county records.
Not sure why realtor.com and zillow.com never updated correctly.

Also, the selling price ended up being $27K over listing price.

 

[2HOTinPHX]

Update.

Even though both realtor.com and zillow.com shows that the sale of the house is pending, redfin.com had the correct information.
The house sold on June 14, 2021 over 2 months ago.
This information is in the county records.
Not sure why realtor.com and zillow.com never updated correctly.

Also, the selling price ended up being $27K over listing price.

Thanks for the update ..Redfin for the win... would be interesting to see how quickly the other sites get updated.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Update.

Even though both realtor.com and zillow.com shows that the sale of the house is pending, redfin.com had the correct information.
The house sold on June 14, 2021 over 2 months ago.
This information is in the county records.
Not sure why realtor.com and zillow.com never updated correctly.

Also, the selling price ended up being $27K over listing price.

As I mentioned, there are a myriad of reasons. Most likely, Redfin caught the sale through the county records. Realtor.com gets the information usually through the MLS which is updated by the selling agent. Often, these agents "forget" to update the listing even though almost every MLS I am familiar with requires the agents to update the listing within a reasonable time. That information is then syndicated out to Zillow (and other 3rd party sites). So, agent forgets to update Realtor so the information that is syndicated out is inaccurate.

 

[Retired Expat]

Thanks for the update ..Redfin for the win... would be interesting to see how quickly the other sites get updated.

Yeah you can’t believe everything you read on Zillow etc. My home shows in its history as selling for half of what it did. Father sold to daughter with other half plus interest to be paid when the daughter sells in the near future.

Oh and near me now it is the seller looking for a 4-6 month contingency to find somewhere to move t prior to closing. Weird timea