I feel I still don’t understand this…
This is how houses are being sold where I live:
-I go to my bank and it gets cleared what maximum amount I will be allowed to loan for a house (let’s say 350,000€).
-I find a house in a listing for 280,000€, I go watch it on an open house day, together with 5 other people.
-After the open house day, you can bid on the house. Above and below asking price, does not matter. If there’s little interest I could gamble ln a bid for 250,000€ and hope the sellers are desperate cause they need the money, then they would accept the bid (for example).
-My bid will always be limited in time (like «I bid 250,000€ until tomorrow at 12:00). If noone else bids more, and the sellers accepts, the house is then sold. Period.
-Then we agree about a moving date, like August 5th. We sign the contract and the house is mine. No matter if the sellers have a new house, have to move to their mum’s, lost the bidding war for another house or whatever. That’s not my problem, and none of my concern.
-That I have to sell my house is also none of the seller’s problem. Either I have to sell my house first, set the moving date to 4 months later and hope I find my next house until then, or I have to finance it so that I potentially would sit with two houses for a while (until I sold my old one). Some people rent it out if it’s hard to get sold, but mostly not. Mostly houses are sold relatively quickly, unless you put an astronomical and unrealistic price on it.