How to Read MLS Listing Statuses: What Sold, Sold Conditional, Terminated and Expired Actually Mean
The status tag on a listing tells a story the price doesn’t — and a Terminated listing that instantly reappears is usually a days-on-market reset.
What do MLS listing statuses like New, Sold, Sold Conditional, Terminated and Expired actually mean?
An MLS listing status is the code that tells you where a home sits in the transaction process. New/Active means it’s for sale and open to offers; Sold Conditional (SC) means an offer has been accepted but conditions (inspection, financing, sale of buyer’s home) still hang over it and it could fall through; Sold (Firm) means every condition is cleared and the deal is binding; Suspended means it’s temporarily off-market but still under contract; Terminated (Ter) means the listing agreement was ended early; Expired (Exp) means the listing period lapsed unsold. Reading them well is reading the seller’s signals.
Source: TorontoMLS / TRREB listing status definitions (torontomls.net, 2026); conditional-vs-firm distinction per standard Ontario real estate practice
I’m Arthur Zhao. When I take buyers through listings, the first thing I teach them to read isn’t the price — it’s that small status tag in the corner. The same house marked New, Sold Conditional, or Terminated tells three completely different stories: one you can still chase, one that could bounce back onto the market any day, and one where the seller is quietly resetting the clock to make the home look fresher than it is. Here’s what every status you’ll meet on TRREB, realtor.ca and HouseSigma actually means — especially the difference between Sold Conditional and Sold Firm, and why a Terminated-then-relisted home deserves a second look.
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The framework: a status tells you where a home is in the process
Every home on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) carries a status label. It doesn’t tell you whether the home is good — it tells you where the transaction stands. Buyers use it to judge whether they can still make a move; sellers and agents use it to read the competition and market mood. realtor.ca (the public site) usually only shows whether a home is active; TRREB’s internal system and HouseSigma preserve the full trail — sold, terminated, expired, price changes and all. Reading statuses lets you read a home’s history — and a seller’s motivation: whether they’re urgent, testing the price, or coming off a deal that just collapsed. Below, in three buckets: for sale, sold, and off-market.
For sale: New / Active, Price Change, Extension
• New / Active: freshly listed or still on the market; days on market (DOM) starts counting from 0.
• Price Change (PC): the seller adjusted the asking price — usually a reduction, meaning the original price didn’t attract buyers. Read it as a negotiation signal.
• Extension (EXT): before the original listing expired, the seller renewed the listing agreement to extend the period. Key point: an extension normally does not reset DOM, so you can still see the home’s true cumulative time on market — which is exactly what separates it from a terminate-and-relist.
The core distinction: Sold Conditional (SC) vs Sold Firm
• Sold Conditional (SC): the seller has accepted an offer that still carries conditions — commonly a home inspection, financing approval, lawyer review, or sale of the buyer’s existing property (SOPP). If a condition isn’t met or waived by its deadline, the deal collapses and the home returns to market.
• Sold Firm / Sold: all conditions have been waived, or the offer was unconditional (firm) to begin with. This is the binding sale — the buyer is now legally committed.
In short: SC isn’t game over — it can come back to life. Sold Firm is the one that’s truly settled.
⚠️Don’t scroll past a Sold Conditional (SC) home — it only means an offer was accepted with conditions, not that the sale is done. If the conditions (inspection / financing / sale of a home) aren’t cleared by their deadline, the property comes back on the market. If you love it, have your agent confirm the condition deadline and consider a backup offer.
Why Sold Conditional can still bounce back: the condition period
Under standard Ontario practice, a conditional offer only becomes binding once every condition is met or waived in writing within the condition period (commonly 3–10 business days). So while a home sits at SC:
• If the buyer isn’t satisfied with the inspection, can’t secure financing, or can’t sell their current home, they can walk away per the agreement and get their deposit back without penalty — and the deal falls through.
• Some sellers accept a conditional offer while keeping an escape clause, letting them continue entertaining better offers until the first buyer waives their conditions.
So if you still want an SC home: have your agent confirm the condition type and deadline, and consider submitting a backup offer in case it collapses — that’s not rare in the GTA.
Fell through and back: Deal Fell Through, Back on Market, Pending
• Deal Fell Through: an accepted offer terminated because a condition wasn’t met (or the buyer defaulted).
• Back on Market (BOM): the home is active again and open to offers. When you see BOM, it’s worth asking why the last deal died — it could be the buyer’s financing (nothing to do with the home) or an inspection that surfaced a real problem (very much to do with the home).
• Pending: more common on U.S.-style MLSs for an accepted offer working toward closing; in TRREB’s system, that stage maps mostly to Sold Conditional and Sold.
💡 Lock this in: Sold Conditional only means “an offer was made and accepted” — not “the deal is done.” Until the conditions clear and the status flips to Sold Firm, the home can still return to the market. Buyers, don’t give up on a home you love just because it shows SC. Sellers, don’t stop preparing just because you took a conditional offer — plenty of “sure things” die inside the condition period.
Off-market: Suspended vs Terminated vs Expired
• Suspended (SPN): temporarily pulled from public search, but the listing agreement is still in force — the seller may be renovating, staging, or waiting out the market, and can relist later.
• Terminated (Ter): the seller and agent ended the listing agreement early; the home is fully off-market.
• Expired (Exp): the listing reached its agreed expiry date unsold, and the agreement lapsed.
Terminated is “called off on purpose”; Expired is “ran out of time.” Both mean the home isn’t on the market right now — but the next move (especially after a Terminated) is the real signal.
🚨A single address showing “Terminated → immediately relisted as New” in a short window is often a seller resetting days on market (DOM) to manufacture demand — sometimes at a higher price. Don’t trust the shiny “DOM = 0”: verify the home’s true cumulative time on market on HouseSigma or an agent-pulled MLS history, and use it as negotiating leverage.
Red flag: Terminated then instantly relisted = a DOM reset
The motive is usually one of two: reset the clock to manufacture a sense of demand, or use the relist to bump the price. How to catch it: pull the home’s full trail on HouseSigma or an agent’s MLS history. If the same address shows “Terminated → immediately New” in a short window — sometimes at a higher price — count the real cumulative time on market as a negotiating lever, and don’t be fooled by that shiny “DOM = 0.”
ℹ️realtor.ca (the public site) usually shows only active / not-active. The full trail — Terminated, Expired, fell-through, price changes — lives in HouseSigma or a licensed agent’s TRREB history. Have your agent pull it before you buy, and you cut the information gap in half.
Rentals: Leased and Leased Conditional
Lease listings follow the same logic as sales:
• Leased Conditional: the landlord has accepted a rental application that still carries conditions (for example, income, credit or guarantor verification still pending) and hasn’t finalized.
• Leased: conditions cleared and the lease is signed — the unit is taken.
Practical note for tenants: if a place you want shows Leased Conditional, you can have your agent line you up behind it — if the conditional lease falls apart, the unit returns to market. It’s the exact mirror of Sold Conditional on the sales side.
Turning statuses into leverage: for buyers and sellers
• Buyers: don’t rely on realtor.ca’s active/not-active view. Have your agent pull the full MLS history and look for “Terminated then relisted,” the true cumulative DOM, and whether the last deal fell through and why — each is a reason to negotiate.
• Sellers: understand that DOM shapes buyer psychology, but washing the clock with a terminate-and-relist isn’t free — savvy buyers and HouseSigma can see the trail, which can cost you trust. Pricing right beats resetting the clock after the fact.
This article is educational; confirm exact status definitions and practice with TRREB’s current rules and your licensed agent.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the real difference between Sold Conditional and Sold Firm?
Sold Conditional means the seller accepted an offer that still carries conditions (inspection, financing, lawyer review, sale of the buyer’s existing home); if a condition isn’t met or waived by its deadline, the deal falls through and the home returns to market. Sold Firm means every condition is cleared — or the offer was unconditional to begin with — so the sale is binding and the buyer is legally committed. SC can still bounce back; Sold Firm is settled.
A home shows Terminated — can I still buy it?
Terminated means the seller and agent ended the listing agreement early, so the home isn’t on the market right now. It may be genuinely off, or it may reappear soon under a new listing. If you’re serious, have your agent check whether it’s been relisted or reach out to the previous listing agent — but be aware that a Terminated home that’s instantly relisted is often just resetting days on market, so don’t take the “fresh” relist at face value.
How is Terminated different from Expired?
Both mean the home is currently off-market, but the cause differs. Terminated means the seller and agent ended the listing agreement on purpose before its expiry. Expired means the listing reached its agreed expiry date unsold and simply lapsed. One is “called off”; the other is “ran out of time.” A Terminated listing followed by an immediate relist is more worth scrutinizing for pricing games or a DOM reset than an Expired one.
Why does DOM (days on market) matter, and why does it get "reset"?
DOM (days on market) records how long a home has been listed. The higher it climbs, the staler a home looks — and the bolder buyers get about negotiating down. To counter that, some sellers terminate the old listing and relist it fresh so DOM resets to 0, manufacturing a sense of demand. To catch it, review the full trail on HouseSigma or an agent-pulled MLS history and judge by the true cumulative time on market, not the relisted number.
Do realtor.ca, TRREB and HouseSigma show the same statuses?
Not entirely. realtor.ca is public and usually shows only whether a home is active. TRREB’s internal system and HouseSigma retain the full history — sold price, Sold Conditional, Terminated, Expired, price changes and fell-through deals. To see a home’s true trail — especially any terminate-and-relist — have a licensed agent pull the TRREB history or cross-check HouseSigma.
Arthur Zhao
Real Estate Broker · FRI · ABR · SRS · PSA · MCNE · E-PRO · GUILD Elite
VP & Branch Manager, Bay Street Group Inc.
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