What do all these real estate abbreviations mean?
It used to be that the San Antonio MLS (Multiple Listing Service) was nothing but real estate abbreviations. It was like we were speaking in code constantly. Want to know if the house has smoke alarms? Well then, you need to know that it’s abbreviated as SMKALM. Lucky for us here in San Antonio, when we moved to our new MLS system, it did away with all of the abbreviations for descriptions of property, but a few still remain. These remaining abbreviations are used to identify the status of a property. Since, we often get questions on what they mean, we’ve assembled a quick list to help you out. Hopefully, it will help make sense of it all.
ACT – Active NEW – New
Means there are no accepted offers (contracts) on the home and they are available for purchase. NEW just means it went into the system recently (its our way of finding the latest entries).
AO – Active Option
This means an offer has been made and accepted, making it a contract. In the contract there is a section about the option period. This period of time (the length is negotiable) is typically used by a buyer to get their inspections done. In this period, the buyer may cancel the contract for any reason with no fear of losing their earnest money (the money submitted with an offer as a good faith deposit). If the buyer were to cancel the contract within that period that would lose their “option fee” which is also negotiable. If the buyer does not cancel, that money is credited to them at closing. The reason this exists, is that if you were to do you inspections and find some terrible problems and you and the seller couldn’t come to terms on the repairs or credits or new price based on the inspection, then you have the right to walk away without being penalized (except for the option fee). It allows for a negotiation between the parties on any repairs or discoveries during this period as well as covers for “buyer’s remorse” (the feeling the day after your offer is accepted of “what have I done!?”).
PND – Pending
The option period is over and the sale is moving closer towards a close. The sale is pending. This period can be as short or as long as the buyer and seller agree to. Typically in San Antonio we’re looking at 30 days for most sales, 45 or so for foreclosure, short sale or HUD homes.
BOM – Back On Market
For one reason or another the sale went into AO or PND status and is now back and available. Its the same as ACT or NEW, it just signifies that something happened with the previous transaction (not necessarily an indicator that it was something bad) and it is now for sale again.
PCH – Price change
Exactly what it sounds like. The house’s list price has been changed.
RFR – Active Right of First Refusal
You won’t see this too often, but it typically happens when someone makes an offer when they still have their own house to sell. While the buyer is trying to sell their old house, they usually acquire a “right of first refusal.” If a property were RFR, you could make an offer, but the seller would then have to turn to the buyer with the right of first refusal and say “buy it or not?” That buyer has the first shot at the property, so they would have to make a decision as to whether they wanted the house bad enough to buy it before the old house sold.
EXP – Expired CAN – Canceled WDN – Withdrawn
Used by agents to know when a listing is no longer in another agent’s hands. Expired means just that, the listing agreement between the seller and the agent has expired. Canceled means the seller canceled the listing with the agent. Withdrawn means the agent pulled the listing from the MLS and stopped their agreement with the seller.
RNTD – Rented
Exactly what it says.
SLD – Sold
Closing and funding has occurred and the house now belongs to someone else.
Two others you should know as they appear on every MLS info sheet.
DOM – Days On Market CDOM – Cumulative Days On Market
Days On Market is just that – how many days the property has been listed on the market (for sale). Cumulative Days On Market is a total of all the days the home has been on the market (for instance if 3 different agents each listed the home for 30 days, the CDOM would be 90 days).
photo courtesy of Foxtongue