| Once you've found a property that you'd like to make an offer on, you'll want to discuss with your agent the price, and terms and conditions of the offer. Your agent should be able to do a comparative market anaylsis on the property to determine what a reasonable price range the property should be in. Once you've settled on a price range, including a maximum amount that you would accept, you would then determine whether there are any contingencies with the offer. What this means is that the offer is contingent on the occurrence of another event. For example, perhaps you cannot purchase the home until your current residence sells and closes. You can make the offer contingent on the closing of your current residence. Until your current residence sells, then the transaction cannot move forward.
A good Realtor will know when and what kind of contingencies to include in an offer, and should be able to find out from RMLS or the title company the property's sales history, and the motivation of the seller from the listing agent. | 
