It means the seller has accepted an offer, the buyer's contingencies are cleared or waived, and the sale is sitting in escrow waiting to close, so the house is off the market in every practical sense even though a minority of pending sales still fall apart.
Buyers ask this for one reason: is it worth writing anything. The short answer is that pending is late in the process and most of these close, so the odds are poor, but a backup offer costs a signature rather than money and the sale that fails leaves the seller wanting a replacement immediately.
This page is about what to do. The difference between the word pending and the word contingent has its own page, linked below.
Where pending sits in the timeline
A financed purchase runs roughly like this. An offer is accepted, the earnest money goes to escrow, and the inspection period opens. Repairs are negotiated, the appraisal comes back, and underwriting works through its conditions. Once those are behind the contract the listing usually moves to pending, and what remains is document work: clearing title, the payoff on the seller's loan, the association resale package where there is one, the closing disclosure, the signing, the funding and the recording.
So pending is not a formality and it is not the finish line. It is the stretch where the parties have stopped negotiating and started executing, and where the remaining risks are documentary rather than about whether anybody wants the house.
How long pending normally lasts
Count from the accepted offer rather than from the day the status changed. A financed purchase commonly takes 30 to 45 days from acceptance to keys, and a cash purchase two to three weeks, so a listing that went pending after a two-week contingency period typically has a few weeks left. FHA and VA loans often run at the longer end, and a file waiting on repairs the appraiser required runs longer still.
In Nevada the closing is handled by the title company acting as the neutral escrow, and the things that stretch this stretch are usually not the loan. An association resale package that has not arrived, a payoff statement the seller's lender is slow to produce, an old deed of trust that was paid off but never reconveyed: any of them can hold a file that is otherwise finished. Recording is a county step, so documents delivered late in the day can record the next business day.
How often a pending sale still fails, and why
A minority of pending sales collapse, and it is not a negligible minority. The share moves with interest rates and with how aggressive the appraisal environment is, and the honest thing to say is that it is small enough to be a long shot and large enough to be worth a backup offer on a house you actually want.
The reasons cluster. Financing is the largest: a loan that was approved with conditions runs into a condition the borrower cannot clear, or the borrower changes jobs, opens a credit account or lets a payment go late during escrow and the approval is pulled. The appraisal is second, where the value lands below the price and neither side will move. A home sale contingency is third, where it survived into pending at all, because it depends on a second transaction nobody in this one controls. Then the smaller ones: a title defect that cannot be cleared quickly, an estate or trust that turns out to need probate, a seller who cannot find their next house, and buyers who simply change their minds and forfeit the deposit.
The backup offer, and what else to do
A backup offer is a full signed purchase agreement that sits in second position by written agreement. If the first contract is canceled, the backup moves into first position automatically and the clocks start, which saves being told about the failure after somebody else has already been. Some listings say pending taking backups outright; where the status does not say, the listing agent can.
Two things are worth doing alongside it. Ask what stage the pending file is in, because a sale waiting on a loan condition is a different risk from one waiting on a recording appointment. And keep searching. Waiting on a pending house is a plan that only pays off in the minority of cases, and the listings that have already cut their price are a better use of the same attention.
Questions people ask
Can you still see a house that is pending?
Sometimes, and it depends on the seller. Many stop showings once a sale is pending; some keep showing for backup offers, particularly where the buyer has a home sale contingency. The listing agent decides and is the person to ask.
Does pending mean the house is sold?
Not yet. Sold means the deed has recorded and the money has been disbursed. Pending means a contract exists and escrow is working toward that day, which for a financed purchase is commonly a few weeks away.
Should you write a backup offer on a pending house?
Only if it is genuinely the house you want, since most pending sales close and a backup can tie up your attention for weeks. It costs a signature rather than money, and it puts you first in line rather than being told after the fact.