It means the seller has already accepted an offer on the house but they are accepting back up offers in case the first contract falls through. Maybe the first ocontract has some contingencys that might not be met. For example, the sale may be contingent on them getting financing, selling their existing home, etc.

There have been several occasions on this forum where posters have been "outed" and discovered by others involved with their transactions. -On the kitchen forum there was a lady who'd been chronicling her kitchen cabinet builder's problems. She ended up having to go to court over it. Somewhere in all of this, the cabinet builder found her postings on the forum and threatened to sue her for publicly disparaging his name. -On the pool forum there was another example of a poster who chronicled his rotten pool build. The pool builder was informed of the posts, and also threatened to sue. -Right here on this forum, a poster was venting about some RE transaction problems he was having. Someone told his realtor, and s/he ended up here on GWeb and confronted the poster about it. There's just no way I feel comfortable posting specifics, and also a location. General questions/comments, maybe. But not specifics. That won't stop others from figuring it out (for example, maybe remembering me posting my location or specific city in a previous thread), but if there are details that are ongoing in a RE transaction, I wouldn't advise anyone post too much info. You never know who will see that info or how that knowledge may be used against you.

sorry, by "he gets it fixed cheap", I meant that he gets it repaired or replaced for the service fee only. The first time I placed a service contract on a house, many years ago, both water heaters & an air conditioner went out the first year. The homeowner was delighted; water heaters & air conditioners *will* go out, & he got brand new units for under $200 out of his pocket. The service companies have contractors who give them a discount for the volume of business. A service company isn't an insurance company, so you are not indemnified; you don't necessarily get like for like, you get builder grade, but if you prefer, you can get a check from the service company & buy your own replacement, or you can get the contractor to install an upgrade & pay the difference. Service contracts aren't the answer to every prayer, but they fill a gap.

I mean can you take another offer a day before we close??? the day we close?? Like at what point do you have to mark the home pending??? There is a buying a home section here and you might want to post there. There are specific real estate laws that I am not familiar with, even as I am familiar with general contract law. First, most contingency sales have a method for you to remove the contingency, so technically they can't take another offer at all. They can just get an offer and demand that you remove the contingency. This is the kick-out clause. Removing the contingency is your choice rather than theirs. They can make the demand that you remove the contingency or they will void the contract. However, this is a real mess and I would suggest you go over their agent's head if that is an option. Generally, if you sign a contract then you must abide by the terms you agreed to. At this point I suspect that you can block any offer they take. They are in breach of the contract and they can't get enriched by that breach. If you wanted to push the thing in court you could let them take another offer, then get an injunction on their closing until a hearing. Of course, you wouldn't want to spend too much money working on that, but at that point they become liable to both parties that signed a contract with them and they get a headache like they couldn't possibly imagine. For a few hundred bucks you can prevent them selling for months just waiting on a hearing that you drop 15 minutes before court.