We've been getting lots of questions about homes in Prescott that are "Active with Contingency." It's a state of nature that can only be found within the confines of the Prescott-area MLS. In this episode, we explain this eerie twilight state and how it came to be.Video Transcript
good afternoon my little fellow pickle
peeps out there hello peeps cheers to
you
can you see my lady yeah we got our
green screen ready coffee mugs now yes
won’t bore holes into us anymore that’s
right although i’m wearing green stripes
i think you’ll be okay
we’ll see we’ll see we’ll see
today we wanted to talk about something
that we get a lot of phone calls about
and it is
i think this house is still available it
says active with contingency
with contingency it’s really kind of the
bane of our existence it really is all
right so so just to be clear there’s no
such thing
as active with a contingency that does
not exist that’s like saying
dead and breathing
that’s a contradiction of terms you
can’t have a contingency
unless there’s a contract right and if
there’s a contract it’s not active it’s
not active
um so in the olden days this used to
just be called plano pending
and everybody knew what that meant it’s
under contract and sometimes they put in
there uh we are taking backups but
essentially was a done deal yeah now
they’ve changed it you know we can still
use pending occasionally but it’s a cash
deal and they know it’s going forward
yeah so just to be clear what this is
about is a complete screw-up
uh on our uh a local association
they redesigned the menu pull down
i have been doing computer programming
since i was in eighth grade
and i have never seen menus so poorly
designed and create more confusion
than these it is confusing it’s um i
think they had the best of intentions
they did they did but it doesn’t
translate well yeah so let’s talk a
little bit about what the reality is
like what what are the different
statuses
of a contract in real estate so
it’s not complicated either it’s active
on the market right or for sale yeah for
sale
or it’s pending which means there’s
contract yeah that’s right it’s either
active or compended or pending right and
that’s kind of it
uh so it used to be you had active you
had pending and you had pending taking
backup
meaning we already have an offer but if
you want to put in a backup offer you
can do that yeah and everyone understood
that it was pretty simple it was pretty
simple
uh there is another another shade of
this and that is uh
pending but there’s a buyer contingency
so if there’s a buyer contingency and
you have
say a cash offer or an offer without a
contingency that’s right uh you can
knock out that’s right the offer that’s
there you you can approach the seller
and the seller has the option of uh
telling the current buyer with the
contingency look you either either have
to get rid of the contingency or you’re
out and you can take your owner’s money
that’s correct so i guess what par was
trying to do
was to let people see if if there was a
contingency if there was any opening
yeah that you might wiggle in yeah and
so really all they had to do was add
pending with contingency yeah uh and
instead they created active with
contingency which as i said is a
contradiction in terms
and instead of just putting it all on
one drop down menu they’re two drop down
yes uh so you have to check the other
one i it’s it’s oh my god it’s um it’s
pretty bad
so active with contingency essentially
means pending yeah
and and actually it means it needs a
little more than that right now very few
people are taking contingencies so if
you if you see active with contingency
essentially that means pending with a
backup
right you can’t you can’t take a backup
and you can’t set it in mls so if you
want to you’re the listing agent and you
want to accept backups you have to call
it active with contingency and there’s a
separate field i forgot what the
separate field is and it will say take
it back up so take them back up the only
way you can say pending and sometimes
thinking back up is using this crazy
active brand and sometimes it will
indicate uh buyer contingency which you
kind of gives you to go ahead like hey
if you guys have cash we might be able
to wiggle in here which is that’s kind
of nice to know yeah
so if you consider think about
active with contingency just translate
that in your mind it means
pending taking backup essentially and
you can check the other field to see if
there’s a contingency involved right now
they’re they’re basically they’re really
aren’t yeah
no one’s accepting contingencies
um especially buyers contingencies
absolutely not you know what i mean it’s
just it’s too hot of a market friends
there’s something something about
having something in print
on a website though
that people think it’s real yeah whether
it’s zillow or it’s this active with
with contingent well it says active with
contingency well let me explain with
that but it says i know so don’t get
confused although it is confusing it’s
very good um just take it to me it’s
pretty much pending and
that door is closed yeah
yeah well unless you want to put in a
backup offer yeah you can always do a
backup offer and of course if you are
cash and it has a uh it does have a
condition you know yeah then you might
be able to then you might be in there
but that happens very few and far
between yeah and when you see the you
know hundreds of
pending uh
contracts uh uh transactions
that all say active with contingency
what is going on in prescott yes what’s
going on is they have people in charge
of menu design that really just kind of
don’t know
and uh you know it’s everything here is
pretty much sold sold sold so yeah
so if you get in here and you want to
put an offer in make sure your house
number one is at the very least on the
market number two it’s even better if
you have a contract on it with a firm
close of escrow and number three the
best of the best would be if you’re
already sold and closed and you’re ready
to move forward then you get in here you
see something get that offer in toronto
yeah pronto because time is a wasting
something to be said for for backup
offers too although it’s gotten better
uh when the market really started
getting crazy we saw a lot of
transactions falling out
and the the number of transactions that
are falling out of uh out of escrow is
still higher than it normally was right
but it’s it’s it’s lowered quite a bit
but still you know backup offer might be
a good idea
so don’t let that throw you we will find
you one we will hunt down one that
doesn’t say active with contingency
that’s right that’s just plain old
active no active and ready to go and
we’ll make it happen for you as
hopefully as quick as we can
so uh anyway come on in come visit us
uh you can reach us at
at an 713-302-1964 we’ll spend a great
day going all around town looking at
some great properties and hopefully
we’ll write a contract for you on an
active property on an active property
you can also find information at
pickle411.com
that’s right our website whether you buy
or seller somewhere in between all kinds
of free information
very useful yeah check out pickle411.
411.com cheers to that
okay everyone out there have a great
rest of your day
and uh i hope to see you soon bye
peeps out there hello peeps cheers to
you
can you see my lady yeah we got our
green screen ready coffee mugs now yes
won’t bore holes into us anymore that’s
right although i’m wearing green stripes
i think you’ll be okay
we’ll see we’ll see we’ll see
today we wanted to talk about something
that we get a lot of phone calls about
and it is
i think this house is still available it
says active with contingency
with contingency it’s really kind of the
bane of our existence it really is all
right so so just to be clear there’s no
such thing
as active with a contingency that does
not exist that’s like saying
dead and breathing
that’s a contradiction of terms you
can’t have a contingency
unless there’s a contract right and if
there’s a contract it’s not active it’s
not active
um so in the olden days this used to
just be called plano pending
and everybody knew what that meant it’s
under contract and sometimes they put in
there uh we are taking backups but
essentially was a done deal yeah now
they’ve changed it you know we can still
use pending occasionally but it’s a cash
deal and they know it’s going forward
yeah so just to be clear what this is
about is a complete screw-up
uh on our uh a local association
they redesigned the menu pull down
i have been doing computer programming
since i was in eighth grade
and i have never seen menus so poorly
designed and create more confusion
than these it is confusing it’s um i
think they had the best of intentions
they did they did but it doesn’t
translate well yeah so let’s talk a
little bit about what the reality is
like what what are the different
statuses
of a contract in real estate so
it’s not complicated either it’s active
on the market right or for sale yeah for
sale
or it’s pending which means there’s
contract yeah that’s right it’s either
active or compended or pending right and
that’s kind of it
uh so it used to be you had active you
had pending and you had pending taking
backup
meaning we already have an offer but if
you want to put in a backup offer you
can do that yeah and everyone understood
that it was pretty simple it was pretty
simple
uh there is another another shade of
this and that is uh
pending but there’s a buyer contingency
so if there’s a buyer contingency and
you have
say a cash offer or an offer without a
contingency that’s right uh you can
knock out that’s right the offer that’s
there you you can approach the seller
and the seller has the option of uh
telling the current buyer with the
contingency look you either either have
to get rid of the contingency or you’re
out and you can take your owner’s money
that’s correct so i guess what par was
trying to do
was to let people see if if there was a
contingency if there was any opening
yeah that you might wiggle in yeah and
so really all they had to do was add
pending with contingency yeah uh and
instead they created active with
contingency which as i said is a
contradiction in terms
and instead of just putting it all on
one drop down menu they’re two drop down
yes uh so you have to check the other
one i it’s it’s oh my god it’s um it’s
pretty bad
so active with contingency essentially
means pending yeah
and and actually it means it needs a
little more than that right now very few
people are taking contingencies so if
you if you see active with contingency
essentially that means pending with a
backup
right you can’t you can’t take a backup
and you can’t set it in mls so if you
want to you’re the listing agent and you
want to accept backups you have to call
it active with contingency and there’s a
separate field i forgot what the
separate field is and it will say take
it back up so take them back up the only
way you can say pending and sometimes
thinking back up is using this crazy
active brand and sometimes it will
indicate uh buyer contingency which you
kind of gives you to go ahead like hey
if you guys have cash we might be able
to wiggle in here which is that’s kind
of nice to know yeah
so if you consider think about
active with contingency just translate
that in your mind it means
pending taking backup essentially and
you can check the other field to see if
there’s a contingency involved right now
they’re they’re basically they’re really
aren’t yeah
no one’s accepting contingencies
um especially buyers contingencies
absolutely not you know what i mean it’s
just it’s too hot of a market friends
there’s something something about
having something in print
on a website though
that people think it’s real yeah whether
it’s zillow or it’s this active with
with contingent well it says active with
contingency well let me explain with
that but it says i know so don’t get
confused although it is confusing it’s
very good um just take it to me it’s
pretty much pending and
that door is closed yeah
yeah well unless you want to put in a
backup offer yeah you can always do a
backup offer and of course if you are
cash and it has a uh it does have a
condition you know yeah then you might
be able to then you might be in there
but that happens very few and far
between yeah and when you see the you
know hundreds of
pending uh
contracts uh uh transactions
that all say active with contingency
what is going on in prescott yes what’s
going on is they have people in charge
of menu design that really just kind of
don’t know
and uh you know it’s everything here is
pretty much sold sold sold so yeah
so if you get in here and you want to
put an offer in make sure your house
number one is at the very least on the
market number two it’s even better if
you have a contract on it with a firm
close of escrow and number three the
best of the best would be if you’re
already sold and closed and you’re ready
to move forward then you get in here you
see something get that offer in toronto
yeah pronto because time is a wasting
something to be said for for backup
offers too although it’s gotten better
uh when the market really started
getting crazy we saw a lot of
transactions falling out
and the the number of transactions that
are falling out of uh out of escrow is
still higher than it normally was right
but it’s it’s it’s lowered quite a bit
but still you know backup offer might be
a good idea
so don’t let that throw you we will find
you one we will hunt down one that
doesn’t say active with contingency
that’s right that’s just plain old
active no active and ready to go and
we’ll make it happen for you as
hopefully as quick as we can
so uh anyway come on in come visit us
uh you can reach us at
at an 713-302-1964 we’ll spend a great
day going all around town looking at
some great properties and hopefully
we’ll write a contract for you on an
active property on an active property
you can also find information at
pickle411.com
that’s right our website whether you buy
or seller somewhere in between all kinds
of free information
very useful yeah check out pickle411.
411.com cheers to that
okay everyone out there have a great
rest of your day
and uh i hope to see you soon bye
