Can you make an offer before yours has sold?

[CrapBag]

My shared ownership house is up for sale, but nothing happened yet. Has only been up for 2 weeks but not 1 interested person (doesn't help that useless housing association have listed it in the wrong area).

I am going to start looking at houses now as I don't want to wait until it sells then be in a rush to find somewhere, plus there may be ones I like the look of that can be struck off my list if they aren't suitable in reality.

If there is one that we do like, is it possible to make an offer before ours is sold? Ours will sell, and I wouldn't have thought it would take long, not many SO houses and none with such a low share which means low mortgage and deposit. Although we are now concerned that help to buy may put people off SO now.

You can but the vendors may accept in principle but refuse to take their property off the market. I think this is what I would do if in this situation. So I'd accept the price but if someone came along who was in a position to proceed immediately then I'd go with them.

It depends on the current market where you live.

Ok, so if it does happen this way, its best to keep half an eye out on other properties in case we do lose it?

Would a vendor take it off the market at all? Or put that its 'under offer' or something?

An agent might tell other viewers that an offer has been made, as this puts pressure on other potential buyers to act fast, knowing someone else wants it.

But it would be a rare vendor who was willing to take their house off the market and wait patiently for your property to sell in a slow market.

The estate agent will advise their client - the house sellers - to keep the property on the market until you have a buyer. It definitely won't be 'under offer' on its status.

Ok, probably not even worth making an offer until ours has sold really.

Tempting as it, it's really not worth properly looking until you have an offer.
You won't know how much you'll have to spend, time scales etc.
Some people won't even let you view if you're not in a position to proceed and few will accept an offer.