When people are looking on our site at the Ventura MLS, they will frequently see a home listed not as “Active” but “Contingent back up”. Can you really buy that home? Is it really for sale? It’s starting to get me frustrated. Inventory seems to be drying up in the category of homes my current buyers are looking for. They’re also looking on the MLS and this morning one of my clients gave me a list of homes she saw listed as “Contingent back up”.

Technically, this can mean one of two things. First, if the house is an REO it means offers have been submitted on the property and those offers have been submitted to the bank – waiting for acceptance. Once the bank has accepted an offer and the contract has been signed, the listing agent is supposed to change the listing in the MLS to “Pending”, which removes it from public viewing.

Second, if a home is in Short Pay status, it means again that offers have been submitted and everyone is waiting for a response back from the lender/bank.

So this morning when I called on several contingent back ups, I found out most of these listings were ready to close escrow! The agents hadn’t changed the status in the MLS. These homes were basically “done deals”.

So to answer the question – the answer is “maybe” it’s available!