What does Active Option Contract mean?

A lot of people have questions about the terms Realtors use for house statuses online.  One of the most common questions I get is “What does AOC or Active Option Contract mean?”  I’m so glad you asked!

**Just a reminder, I’m Realtor in Texas and talking about Texas Real Estate, I don’t claim to know how they do it in any other state. I’m also not an attorney and this is NOT legal advice, nor can I give legal advice.**

And now back to our regularly scheduled blog, already in progress….

In the simplest sense, Active Option Contract (AOC) means that the seller has accepted an offer on the property and that home is off the market.

“NOOOOO!!  I LOVED THAT HOUSE!! I was going to write an offer on it tomorrow, what do I do now Emerald?! Is all hope lost?!”

Not necessarily! When a home is in the AOC stage, that means that a buyer is currently doing their due diligence on the home (inspections and such) and isn’t necessarily 100% committed to buying it.  A lot can happen during the “option phase” of the contract, and so there’s only about a 50/50 shot that the buyer and seller will come to agreement on terms and go to closing during this phase of the contract.

“So what does that mean?”

It means that if you really were serious about that house, now is the time to put in a back up offer.  If your back up offer is accepted and the first buyer backs out, you’ve just successfully gotten yourself under contract on that house!  There’s a lot of detail that goes into writing a good back up offer, and I can totally help you with that part of things if it comes to it.  I’ve had some success with back up contracts, in fact, that’s how I got the home I live in now!

The Takeaway:

Don’t despair if the house you’ve been eyeing goes AOC, you may still have a shot at it, a slim one, but a chance just the same.  It does behoove you to get your offers in while it is still active, but I’m not willing to give up if you’re not! And, as always, a reminder that I LOVE what I do and I LOVE talking about real estate, so if you have questions, please ask.  Questions give me purpose, and they give me more blog topics too!