Cancelled – Indicated that the listing agreement between the listing agent and the owner has been cancelled. The owner is free to list his home with another agent, sell it on his own, not sell it at all. The owner may even relist with the same agent.
Withdrawn – Indicates that the listing agreement between the listing agent and the owner is still valid. That the seller has withdrawn his listing from being actively marketted on the MLS BUT is still under contract with the listing agent.
Expired – Indicates the listing agreement between the listing agent and the owner has expired. The owner may relist with the existing agent or another agent. Or he may not relist with anyone.
There is a bit more grey area then indicated when interpreting the mindset of the seller with regards to giving up. It is better to generalize it all. Thus in slow markets you tend to see more expirations, cancelled and withdrawns overall then in hotter markets. The more exp, canc, and withs that you see, the more indicative of sellers homes sitting on the market longer, and longer, and longer. You may see a few expirations and or cancelleds/withdrawns for a single home and then finally it sold…. or it may never have sold and yeah the sellers gave up.
So in the fall and winter these classifications, especially the withdrawns grow… The withdrawns are the hold and hopers hoping that they will sit out the holidays only to come back in the spring and try to snag a trout.
