Or if it's really hot.

"A bird in the hand........."

You can put a clause in the contract that if you get a better offer, the buyers have 24 hours or something to remove the contingency or else you can void the contract. Still not ideal, but it is better than nothing.

But, if the property still shows as "pending" no one will look at it.

There are two levels of pending. One is with a kick out and one is without a kick out. Realtors know the difference. You won't see it unless you have access to the MLS or are told by a realtor. If the house has a contingency, it's still worth a look. In todays' market and financing situations, contingencies fall through a lot more.

rgrs, I disagree. I recently sold my rural property and needed to buy. The only property that I was interested in had already accepted an offer that was contingent on the other buyers selling their home.

Since I had sold, mine was only contingent on now closing ... I put an offer in and ended up bumping the first buyers, and bought a wonderful home.

Maybe things are different in different states. Our house was under contract for over a month an no one looked at it. Then the contract fell through. It had shown as "pending" all that time.

I think there are different terms but I do not know the difference in how they are applied. Each time ours was under contract, it never said "pending." It always said "taking backup offers."

We also left the sign in front of the house and did not update it to say "under contract." When people called about the house, we verbally told them it was under contract but we would still show it if there was interest. Some people saw it anyway and others didn't, but almost everyone who did not want to see it then left their name and number "in case things fell through." Contract falls through, I get on the phone and start calling back that list of people. It worked for us.

Rgrs, your agent should have updated it not as "Pending", but something else to let other agents and buyers know that it was under a contingent offer. That is why you received no other showings.

On Realtor.com and other sites, if a house is under contract it shows "pending".

That's on Realtor.com. The MLS systems are more specific. They will show Contingent with knock out or Contingent no knock out.

In our MLS when a Sellers receives an acceptable offer their property will go "Contingent" in the MLS and there are quite a few Contingency criteria's that the Sellers Realtor can indicated for MLS members to see exactly what is going on. I show and Seller Contingent w/kickout all the time and so do most other Realtors in my area. I only show my listings as Pending when ALL contingencies have been met or timelines have passed and then I usually wait a few more days if the Buyer is a bit flaky. "Pending" is the kiss of death for any further showings as this means (in my area) all contingencies have been met and the property is Pending Sale. I get to put two of my Listings Contingent today :)

In our IDX feed a property that is Contingent will still show as active to anyone viewing the direct IDX MLS feeds which most Realtors in my area use.