Shelly,

This is to indicate that there is an accepted offer on the property but the sellers/listing broker are not considering the property to be fully "under agreement" until certain dates or contingencies have been met.  Typically that will be either the purchase and sales agreement and/or the mortgage contingency both of which are points at which a transaction can come unraveled.  This status can certainly mean the sellers will be accepting back up offers and in today's uncertain market this has become a common practice.  Usually when we have clients who are interested in these types of properties we will reach out to the listing broker to try and get a sense of the current offer and the viability of the transaction progressing successfully.  If you ever want more information on this type of listing status feel free to reach out to us and we can do some digging to try and find out if the property is worth pursuing.  

If you have further questions or comments please feel free to reach out to me directly.  

Thanks,