You can make an offer on any home up to listing agent and seller determine if they will accept offer. Most of these offers have an expiration date. Depends on value of your time or wait till you have an executed sales offer on your home then move forward.

Have your research completed of area of town you like move to , specifications, have paperwork completed for lender approval. All offers require lender statement which these letters expire in 60 days from date of issued.

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No. It would not be out of the question. In fact, it'd be very smart to do so.

It would be better, of course, to already have a contract on your current home before making an offer on a new one. However, you absolutely need to protect yourself. And you don't want to be in the position of making an offer and having it accepted, and then finding out you can't sell your current home.

Further, such contingencies are more acceptable now than in hotter markets. A few years ago, people were making offers on homes without a contingency to sell their present one. And some sellers wouldn't even consider offers that had that contingency from prospective buyers. But times have changed. And a seller would much rather have an offer--even a contingent one--than no offer at all.

Discuss the issue with your Realtor to find out how to best include the contingency. And as I said, it'd be best to have a contract on your home before making offers on others. Still, you have to protect yourself.

Hope that helps.

Yes you can, BUT.............Contingency sales aren't nearly as strong as one that comes in with a ready, willing and able buyer. Consider this scenario: You've found the perfect house - now you have to go make an offer to the seller. You want the seller to reduce the price and wait until you sell your house. The seller figures that this is a risky deal, since he might pass up a buyer who DOESN'T have to sell a house while he's waiting for you. So he says OK, he'll do the contingency but it has to be a full price offer! You have now paid more for the house than you could have because of the contingency, and you have to sell your existing house in a hurry! Otherwise you lose the house! So to sell quickly you might take an offer that's lower than if you had more time. The bottom line is that buying before selling might cost you THOUSANDS of dollars.

If you're concerned that there is not a house on the market for you, then go on a window-shopping trip. You can identify possible houses and locations without falling in love with a specific house. If you feel confident after that then put your house on the market.

Another tactic is to make the sale ''subject to seller finding suitable housing''. Adding this phrase to the listing means that WHEN YOU DO FIND A BUYER, you will have some time to find the new place. If you don't find anything to your liking, you don't have to sell your present home.