Open any comparable-sales search and the results come back tagged with a status: active, pending, sold, expired, withdrawn. It is tempting to treat them all as "comps" and average the lot, but each status answers a different question, and mixing them is one of the fastest ways to land on a price you cannot defend. This guide explains what each listing status actually tells you, which ones carry the valuation and which only set context, and how to blend them into a single defensible range — with a worked example.
Before you can weight them, you need them straight. The labels vary slightly between markets and MLS systems, but the concepts are universal:
Active — currently for sale, no accepted offer. The price you see is an asking price, set by a seller and their agent, not yet tested by a buyer.
Pending / under contract — an offer has been accepted but the sale has not closed. There is an agreed price, though it is usually not public until completion.
Sold / closed — the transaction completed and the price recorded. A buyer paid and a seller accepted: real, confirmed evidence of value.
Expired — the listing reached the end of its term without selling. The market declined it at that price.
Withdrawn / cancelled — the seller removed it before the term ended, for any reason.
Sold comps: the backbone of the price
Everything in a credible valuation rests on closed sales. A sold comp is the one status where the full negotiation has played out — listing, offers, due diligence, financing, completion — and a number survived all of it. That is why a comparative market analysis is built on solds and why an appraiser will not sign off on much else. The discipline of finding the right comparable sales — close on location, size, age and condition — does the heavy lifting, and recency matters: a sale from three months ago describes today's market far better than one from last year. The closer and fresher your solds, the lighter the adjustments you need and the tighter your range.
Active listings: your competition, not your comps
Active listings are seductive because there are usually more of them and they feel current. But an asking price is a hope, not a fact — sellers routinely list high and settle lower, and an active home with no offers after weeks is telling you its price is wrong, not right. So do not price from actives. Instead, read them as the competition your listing will face. If your subject hits the market at the same time as five similar actives, supply is high and you may need to sharpen the price or the presentation to stand out. Actives also catch a turning market faster than solds do: if every comparable is now asking more than recent closings, demand may be firming, and you would lean toward the top of your sold-based range.
Expired and withdrawn: where the ceiling sits
Expired listings are the most underused signal in a CMA. An expired home is a price the market refused: it sat through its full listing period and no buyer was willing to pay it. That makes it a probable ceiling. If a home very like your subject was listed at a number and failed to sell, asking the same or more is a clear risk. The nuance is that failure has more than one cause — price, yes, but also weak photos, a bad floor plan, poor timing or condition the listing hid. So treat an expired as a question, not a verdict: why did it not sell, and does that reason apply to your subject? Withdrawn listings carry a softer version of the same message. Used well, expireds stop you from over-pricing into the exact gap that just swallowed a competitor.
Pending sales: the freshest signal you can get
Pending or under-contract listings sit between active and sold, and they are the closest thing to a live read on demand. The price is agreed but usually not yet public, so you rarely get the exact figure — but thefact that a comparable went under contract, and how fast, is valuable. A flurry of quick pendings says demand is strong and your recent solds may already understate the market; a comparable that has lingered says the opposite. When your closed comps are getting stale, pendings are the bridge that tells you which way to nudge your range before the next batch of solds confirms it.
A worked example: blending the four
Suppose you are pricing a three-bedroom house of 110 m². All figures are illustrative, to show the method rather than any real market. Your comp set, by status:
Sold (closed in the last four months): three similar homes at €408,000, €415,000 and €419,000 after adjustments — a tight cluster around €414,000.
Pending: a near-identical home went under contract in nine days. Fast sale, demand looks strong.
Active: two comparable homes currently asking €429,000 and €435,000, both on the market over a month with no reported offers.
Expired: a similar home listed at €445,000 expired unsold after its full term.
The solds anchor you near €414,000. The expired at €445,000 marks a hard ceiling — the market already rejected that level. The two actives asking €429,000–€435,000 with no offers suggest that zone is also too high right now. But the quick pending warns you not to under-price either. Net read: list around €419,000 to €425,000 — at or just above your best solds to capture the firm demand the pending implies, while staying clearly under the €429,000+ that is visibly stalling and well below the €445,000 that already failed. That is a range every line of which you can explain to a seller.
How to weight and present them
The hierarchy is simple: solds set the price; pendings, actives and expireds set the position within it. Solds are evidence, pendings are the leading edge, actives are your competition and expireds are the ceiling. Present them that way to a seller and the story tells itself — "here is what actually sold, here is what is selling now, and here is the price that already failed." That framing is also your best defence against the seller who anchors on a neighbour's ambitious asking price, a problem covered in our guide on how to tell if a house is overpriced.
Sorting comps by status by hand is tedious, and that is where property-analysis software earns its place. With Biedradar, you enter an address and it pulls comparable sales and market signals, tagged by status, then generates a branded report with the solds, actives and recent activity laid out — turning a manual data-pull into minutes so your time goes into reading the market, not assembling the spreadsheet. The tool surfaces and organises the evidence; you still apply the judgement — which comps are truly similar, how to adjust them and how much to trust a fast pending over an older sale. For the next step, our walkthrough on how to create a CMA shows where this comp set fits into the full analysis, and how to price a listing turns the range into an asking-price strategy.
Frequently asked questions
Which listings should you actually price from — active, sold or expired?
Price from sold comps. A closed sale is the only listing status where a willing buyer and seller agreed on a number and money changed hands, so it is real evidence of value. Active, pending and expired listings are context: they tell you about your current competition, where the market is heading and where the ceiling sits, but none of them is a confirmed price. Build the range on solds, then read the others to position within it.
What does an expired or withdrawn listing tell you?
An expired listing is a price the market refused at that moment — it failed to sell within its listing period. Withdrawn means the seller pulled it before the term ended. Both mark a probable ceiling: if a similar home was listed at a price and found no buyer, asking the same or more for your subject is risky. They are a warning signal, not a value, because the failure could be price, presentation, timing or condition.
Are pending (under-contract) listings useful comps?
Yes, as the freshest read available. A pending sale has an agreed price but has not closed, so the exact figure is usually private until it records. Still, knowing a comparable went under contract quickly signals strong demand and supports the upper end of your range. Treat pending listings as a leading indicator of where solds are about to land, especially when your closed comps are a few months old.
How recent does a sold comp need to be?
As recent as you can get — ideally within the last three to six months in a stable market, and tighter when prices are moving fast. A sale from a year ago reflects last year's market, not today's. When your only good closed comps are stale, lean on active and pending listings to detect the trend and adjust your read of the older solds up or down accordingly.
Can software sort comps by status for me?
Yes. CMA and property-analysis tools pull comparable sales and tag them by status, so you can filter to recent solds for the price and view actives, pendings and expireds for context in one place. That removes the manual data-pull, but you still own the judgement: which comps are genuinely similar, how to adjust them and how to weight a fast pending sale against an older closed one.
