"The listing is in contract, but you never know what could happen..."

This was the response I got from one broker after I emailed him about a listing I found here. Neither the SE or original listing said "In Contract", but I suspect that happens all the time.

My question is this: how many of you has this happened to? As an inexperienced first-time buyer, I'm not sure what's considered normal sometimes.

If you want to see a unit that turns out to be in contract, and the seller's agent is willing to take you, do you go? Or is it a waste of everyone's time?

Same happens to me all the time. It should appear as "in contract". Every time I email a broker about one of these places, they write back to tell me its in contract but that they'd be "more than happy to find me something else!" It makes me wonder if they leave the good listings up as a ploy to draw me in and get me to use them as a buyer's broker.

Maybe a contract is out, and about to be signed
maybe they are in contract subject to board approval
Maybe the broker does not want to keep changing the status back and fourth
maybe they still want you to respond anyway
maybe they want backup offers

This was just off the top of my head before the phone rang

What MAV said, except for maybe the not wanting to keep changing status one.

My purchase wasn't listed "in contract" until after board approval.

oh the data issues that exist that affect reporting of market conditions...and the brokers that don't follow rebny rules and update the status of their listings (every 14 days rls member required to update status) in the hopes of getting a phone call. Gotta love it.

Until there are violations for the agent and then the firm, this will continue

Interesting, thanks all. It's tricky reading the situation when there's already a buyer lined up.

w33rd - They can be so slick, right? I've dodged that one before too. What surprised me this time was that the agent offered to show me the one I asked about and was under contract.

MAV hit all the possible points but urbandigs' point of not following rebny rules are "practiced" more often than not :)