Sometimes agents don't change them to pending until the option period has expired or all contingency periods (financing, inspections, etc) have passed. Our realtor assn. requires that we update to show PAO, which is pending, accepting offers for homes in the option period/with contingencies, to allow backup offers. Not sure of your local requirements.

It's not your house until you formally sign all of the paperwork to close on the house and PAY for it fully. Until that time the seller certainly can, and should, still be showing it to other potential buyers. The seller also can take other offers as a "back-up" to your offer.

Agents typically don't take down a for sale sign until the sale is actually completed. As said above, no one here knows the rules of the local MLS, and when the listing status should be changed.

Read through some of the posts here. People receive offers and contracts for houses all of the time that don't end up closing. Sometimes the buyer finds problems during the inspection period or can't get a loan. Sometimes the appraisal is too low. There are dozens of reasons contracts don't close.

No need to get irritated about something you can't change. Life is too short.

When a property goes under contract in our MLS system it is usually is contingent on finance, inspections etc. so the first step is contingent. A property that is contingent will still show up in the IDX (public version of the MLS data) as active on the market but in the MLS (Realtors only version) will show up as contingent and show what the contingencies are. When all contingencies have been met and the property goes pending sale then this status will show up on both MLS as pending.

Many 3rd party sites are terrible about updating data though.

Our MLS requires a status change w/in 3 days. It goes from Active to Under Contract DDP or straight to Pending depending on the wishes of the seller. If the seller wishes the home to remain being shown and to accept other offers, then it goes to Under Contract DDP. If the sellers wish to stop all showings, then it goes straight to Pending.

I keep my sign up until I walk out of the closing office for obvious reasons and encourage all buyers to bring in back up contracts.

But, I would expect your property to not remain Active, but to change over to some intermediary status before showing as Closed.

Does the "new price" match the price in your accepted offer?

We are also required to update status in MLS within 3 days. "Pending" when there are contingencies, "Under contract" when contingencies removed. We can put "accepting backup offers" in the public remarks if that is the case. Ensure you are checking realtor.com which should get a direct feed from your MLS (usually updated every 15 minutes). Remember Zillow and other web scraping sites are notoriously inaccurate.

However, almost nobody uses the "under contract" riders on their signs anymore. They want to get the phone calls for buyer leads.

I was very surprised to see a sold sign on a property we just purchased when we drove up for the inspection. There was obviously an inspection contingency and one for the HOA documentation review. The listing status is active, contingent.

Thanks for all of your input. I'm a first time buyer and on edge. Realtor.com still has it as active as of tonight. I know realtors want buyer leads and that's understandable. I've noticed locally that alot of homes have the pending sign on their for sale signs so I was wondering if there was a standard. It's taken over a year to find a home that I like with no major repair issues or unreasonable sellers. And I actually have a coworker who bought her home from a couple who used the same listing agent that is representing the sellers of this house. She says people were still popping up wanting to look at the house 2 months after she had moved in! She had to call the agent directly 3 or 4 times before it was finally taken off the internet. And rrah.... I do consider the house mine because my financing is ready to go. It was ready when I put the offer in and they accepted. I have a great loan officer who got the appraisal done the day after the home inspection and everything is ready to sign. The sellers are the ones holding up closing.....they have some relative coming from out of state to get their stuff outta my,yes,my house. They asked to wait until October 30th. Again, I wasn't worried about someone buying it out from under me as I am set and ready to sign loan wise and have the contract.

But the whole point of moving to the country was to avoid unwanted visitors. I guess there's really nothing I can do to stop the lookie loos, short of peeing a circle around the property. Thanks for all your help.

Oh, I don't know, peeing a circle around the property might attract more lookie-loos ;) Anyhow, after the closing it seems the standard here is to keep the sale sign on the lawn with a SOLD sign on it for about a month. You can put a SOLD sign yourself if the realtor doesn't bother. That should discourage late comers from coming closer to the house after you move in.

I wouldn't worry about it, but agree that it's an irritation. When we purchased out lot last year, DD had to move the agents sign the day after closing -- she just moved it to the lot next door which we knew was still for sale with the same agent. The subdivision had its own website, and the realtor was notorious about not updating it often. I belive that our lot changed to pending about 3 weeks after contract and took it off MLS, but the subdivision website wasn't changed to sold until about a month after we closed.

I had an agent and her client knock on my door and ask to see the house about 2 weeks after I moved in! When I explained that I was the new owner, they then asked if I would consider selling! Really strange because my house is a 70+ year old "starter" home that had had no upgrades and was in no way unique!

We agents have no control over the third party real estate sites like Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia and community websites.