Why all the homes on Zillow are already Under Contract

A lot of buyers are reaching out to us on the Zillow platform. Zillow is a great place to look at homes and see what exists. Unfortunately, when it comes to shopping for a home, it is a very frustrating tool since roughly 2/3 of the homes shown “For Sale” on Zillow are already sold. In the video, Matt explains why that is.

There’s a really simple reason for these data discrepancies on Zillow in the DFW real estate market. Our listing system has four different “Active” statuses for a property. Zillow simply shows all four as “For Sale”, but the reality is that most of these homes are really Under Contract, meaning someone already has a contract to purchase the home. It might come back available, but is not available for purchase today.

Here are the Active Statuses and what they mean:

Active Option Contract (AOC) - the home has a contract on it and the buyer is in their option period.

Active Contingent - the home is “Under Contract” but usually waiting on some contingencies to be might (like financing approval).

Active Kick Out, which means it is Under Contract but the buyer has a contingency for the sale of their other home. Sometimes you can “kick them out” and buy the house from under them. It’s possible, but don’t hold your breath.

Active - it’s for sale

Ideally, Zillow would only show the Active listings on their site. But for whatever reason that’s not how they set it up for the DFW market.

Save yourself the hassle and start shopping on a more accurate site when you get serious about your search. Our site is updated every 15 minutes and displays the actual property status. We also love the Compass app. Unlike Zillow, the Compass updates regularly and filters out those homes that are already under contract. That means that every house you see is still available, which will save you all the frustration and disappointment and help you hone in on the home you love faster.

So that’s just another quick tip for streamlining your home search.

… P.S. Zillow, Trulia, StreetEasy, Hotpads … all these sites are owned by Zillow Group and use the same formula for displaying homes.