Not only would I be nervous about it, I wouldn't do it. You just never know.

On the other hand, as the seller of your future house, I would accept an offer with a contingency such as yours.

The 'buyers' of our house changed their minds 3 days before closing and we didn't close. It took us another 6 months to sell the home.

I would NEVER NEVER NEVER write a contract without that sale contingency...unless I had absolutely enough money to afford both mortgages.

Plan for the worst case scenario.

The financing for the last house we sold fell through the morning of closing. I'd never had a closing fail before that one, but these are different times. I don't think a single closing in my neighborhood has occurred on the original set closing date (all eventually closed however).

Ours fell thru one week before closing. Sold to a different buyer 3 months later.
Kathy G in MI

Statistically, yes, most closings do happen. That probably isn't what you are interested in though. You are just concerned if YOUR closing goes through. Unless you have a crystal ball, it is wise to give yourself an out in these uncertain times. Since most areas are still pretty slow, a contingency will probably be accepted by the seller.

I would make the offer and put the "contingency" in there. However, I think it wouldn't be an issue as there really aren't many other choices, most everyone has a home to sell to buy the trade up house. The key though is that you will have buyers for your house in contract.

As a seller, I wouldn;t accept a general gotta sell my house clause, but its a different story if there is a prequalified buyer in contract.

Here is how nice we've been, and I wish the same to you! My sister and I agreed to engage with a couple who's house wasn't even on the market, contingent upon the sale of their home. When my sister got the agreement to sign and return (she lives in another state), she decided no, she would rather wait till they actually had a buyer.
This angered the couple, who stated they did their part by immediately putting their house on the market. They already had interested parties, and had applied for mortgage approval. So my sister said she would still wait for them to get a buyer before sending back the agreement, but we wouldn't engage with anyone else for 30 days and we'd do a 60 day agreement if they got a buyer in that time frame.
It took them 45 days to get an agreement signed, but they got the mortgage approval pretty early on. We kept giving extensions.
Now with only 34 days left on that agreement, we're no closer to anything happening. Their buyer has been dealing with contractors to get his place repaired for his closing (his company is buying his house) since the end of April.
So, you simply never know. Check that clause and don't ever ever trust that any closing is going to happen until hands are shaken and it's a done deal!

Well, looks like tomorrow's closing isn't going to happen either.

Why??

Sorry, I just realized the explanation is on another thread...
basically the appraisal came in $10K below sales price and the UW is pressuring the appraiser to drop it another $5K. Even the $10K kills the sale so I don't know what the UW is trying to accomplish. The buyer is putting 20% down and has golden credit. His pre-approval letter states "approved for a SALES PRICE of $xxxK" which is why we agreed to the price, so he (a 13-year excellent tenant) wouldn't have to renegotiate his loan. Doesn't say "has to appraise at $anything", and logic says that it should only have to appraise at the loan amount anyway, not the sales price.
The #1 comp is a non-waterfront, non-waterview, not even a water access community, interior unit, no basement, no boat slip, footprint acreage (my unit has nearly .25 acres), but same square footage townhouse. No correction for the end unit, end of development unit. (I suppose there's no difference between a ground floor, penthouse, or any condos in between using this logic?)
And I just got this link this morning, as if I didn't know this:

Here is a link that might be useful: Appraisals Roil RE Deals