The ABP's of Mission Viejo Real Estate

What are the ABP's of Mission Viejo Real Estate?

The Mission Viejo Real Estate Market is an open book these days. With countless websites providing access to home listing information, there are a couple of things you need to know as Mission Viejo home buyer. The primary source for all OC homes for sale is the California Regional Multiple Listing Service—CRMLS for short. This is the Big Kahuna of real estate information and the guy who feeds all the other web sites.

So when you plug in a search on your favorite site, the info is coming from CRMLS. But here’s the insider 411—most sites mask the exact status of the homes they show you. Much like Batman, the Lone Ranger, and the Phantom of the Opera are masked, the true specific status will be hidden from you. So you need to know that even though you see 30 homes that meet your search criteria, only some of these will be available for you to buy. The rest are lumped into a category I like to call "Mission Viejo homes not currently available to be bought by you." Here’s what this means.

1. The CRMLS says that listings with a status of ‘A’ which stands for Active and available for you to fall in love with and negotiate to purchase. So far so good, right? Exactly what you what to see when you’re shopping for homes in Mission Viejo.
2. The CRMLS also says listings with a status of ‘B’ which stands for accepting Back Up Offers, since we are already in escrow with a qualified and capable buyer and this home is not available to be purchased by you, is also active and hence will be delivered to you for consideration in your search results. This is just an illusion of a home you can buy, since the only way you can actually purchase a home in Back Up status is if you put in an offer that you successfully negotiate, and the existing buyer cancels for some reason. Of course, then you’ll need to know the exact reason they cancelled so you don’t walk into the land mine that they discovered and walked away from.
3. Once all the buyers’ contingencies have been removed, the listing is typically changed to ‘P’ for Pending. That means the close of escrow is imminent and if the buyer backs out now it will cost them big bucks. CRMLS does not consider listings in Pending status as active and hence no, they do not appear in the search results on most web sites. 

The moral of this story is: Know your ABP’s when it comes to shopping for homes in Mission Viejo and other great neighborhoods like Ladera Ranch, Rancho Santa Margarita, and Coto de Caza. Save yourself some time and frustration. FYI—the best way to unmask the status of homes you may be interested in is to get a Listingbook Account. See the real status just like the Realtors do. Give me a call, text me or email me and I'll hook you right up. 949-678-3373

I'm Leslie Eskildsen, just keeping it real in Orange County Real Estate.