Can we put offer in even if our house is not yet sold?

[CHOCOLATEPEANUT]

Our house went on the market 10 days ago. We have had loads interest but no offer yet. We antcipate a quick sale as its been out on the markert at a realistic price for a quick sale as we have seen house of dreams.

The house of dreams needs a bit of work (understatment) and we put an offer in last week for 17k under asking price as our builder said it needs 20k spending on it to get it habitable.The estate agent rang back last week and said it was a very fair offer and the vendor thought so too.Somebody else was viewing at the end of the week also with a builder and at that moment our offer was only one on table,the agent said they would update us this week.

I came home today and the agent has left a message on our machine asking me to ring her.

If they accept our offer until ours sells then what is there to protect us ie if i pay for a full survey and then they accept a bigger offer ?

please help, not sure how it all works!!

Their is nothing to protect you, you could ask that the house gets taken off the market and no one else views it but this is just a request and not legally binding.

My brother had this recently and the vendor said that they would accept his offer but refused to make it official until he had an offer on his house, so really what they are saying is come back later and if we are still here you can have it.

basically if your not able to buy the property before you sell you current on then they probably won't take their house of the market until yours is sold. They might well except your offer but if someone comes along with nothing to sell or already sold then you will lose the property.

Your not 'safe' until you have exchanged contracts you can be gazumped anytime up till then.

bummer

Update

The vendor has accepted our final offer and taken house off market for TWO WEEKS to give us chance to sell ours

After that its going back on market.

Feel sick and have everything crossed that we get some viewers this weekend...

yes but don't expect them to take it seriously -they won't take the house off the market and they'll sell it over your head to someone else if they get an offer. Happened to us twice when we were last looking for a house. Ideally you want an offer on your own house first.