As an aside, sometimes if buyers' do have other funds and can buy the house non-contingent, they just may feel more comfortable making a contingent offer and try to get their home sold as it can sometimes be challenging thinking about owning two homes. Everyone so far has given great advice. But I wouldn't rule out adding allowing them to 'add' a paragraph that if their contingency is called and they 'do' have the ability to purchase without selling their home that they can, at the sellers' option and acceptance of proof of ability.

Kim Eisen
RE/MAX Realty 100
"Helping people make smart real estate decisions for over 28 years" - Experience Counts!
(651) 457-HOME (4663)

Be aware, in the state of MN, according the Contingency Addendum put out by the MN Association of Realtors, the only acceptable form of contingency removal is a valid signed fully executed purchase agreement on the back up house. In other words, the buyers cannot come back and say they have "other funds" that allow them to purchase the home even if they don't sell the current one. If they had such liquidity without putting them in bad financial straits, they would have written a non-contingent purchase agreement to begin with.

Dylan
Susan and Scott offer some very sound advice. I agree that your Realtor should be the one providing you with advice because they have all the facts, we do not.

Factors such as the length of time your home has been on the market, the number of homes with which you are competing, and the overall absorption rate of the market need to be taken into account (the number of homes like yours on the market compared to the number sold each month, gives a figure of so many homes selling per month - it that figure going up or down?).

You do have some options.
You could reject the offer outright
You could accept the offer with the contingency
OR you could be creative:
You could counter and make their offer one of Right of First Refusal. That means that you will continue to be looking for other offers, however if you get one you like, they have a set time frame to act, say 48 Hours, to decide if they really want to buy your home.

OR
Accept the offer with the contingency, counter that you want their property listed at no more than 5% above the CMA price, and you expect them to reduce the price 5% per week until the home sells. Obviously you could modify the percentages, but the bottom line is that most homes do not sell because of price, and you want their home to be sold so you can move on.

Good luck~

Do you mean a purchase agreement contingent on the sale of the buyer's other home? Well, only if you're still allowed to continue to show your property, which is the way it usually occurs. Make sure there are specific provisions for how the contingency will be removed and how you can alert them about another offer on your house that you'd like to entertain, thereby giving them a time limit to remove their contingency.

Do you have an agent? Your agent should be giving you advice about these things! There is an elevated level of risk with contingent offers just because there is an additional layer of "what ifs" to be determined and worked out now and in the future. And, stuff can always go wrong with an elevated level of risk.

Good luck!

Dylan,
I think you are asking whether or not to accept an offer contingent upon the sale and successful close of the buyer’s current property. In this market, I would not reject a contingent offer. Make sure you and/or your agent does their diligence to make sure that the buyer’s house is actually salable. Depending on how the terms are agreed, they can be very beneficial to you (the seller). Make sure you keep your house on the market and continue to market it to a “non-contingent buyer”. I hope this helps, and best of luck!