The answer here can vary a lot. It sounds like the MLS in you area says "under contract" without differentiating between houses with a sales contingency and those without a sales contingency. The MLS I previously belonged to listed those with a sales contingency as "pending" with the number of hours allowed in the kickout clause immediately after it. Agents were not as reluctant to show houses with a kickout clause. I helped buyers purchase several homes that had kickout clauses. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to apply in your case. Ask your agent though if the MLS has a way to indicated a contract with a kickout clause. You need to look at where your house is in the range of buyers. Is it a first time buyer price, in the middle or near the top of prices? If it's a first time buyer price, I would walk away. If it's at the top, or even the middle of market prices, you may have to accept the fact that anyone offering on your home is likely to have a contingency for a home sale. The advice in the above post is excellent. Have all the facts and go forward from there.

No, a seller can't cancel a contract on the basis of a subsequent cash offer unless the contingency was not fulfilled. eg contingent on the sale of buyers house by x date and sale didn't close. Or a financing contingency or other contingency not met. This is why backup contracts exist. There are enough primary contracts that fail to close that a backup makes sense. What would be the point of a contract if the seller could simply change his mind and jump into another contract without following the terms already agreed to by the parties? Some contingent contracts have very tight dates that allow the seller to cancel (think 72 hour kick out clause here). These type of primary contracts are especially good for backup contracts but you still have to follow the terms. Those agents that don't present backup offers to their sellers are thankfully few and far between IME. I agree with getting the sellers response to the offer in writing to prevent that scenario.

your situation is that the buyer's home is already under contract and is scheduled to close in weeks. that is a lot better situation for you compared to buyer simply placing their home on the market. They already have a buyer. Now it is just a matter of the sale going through. what are the chances that the deal falls through...maybe 35% chance it falls through? I normally don't like a contingnecy. However, in your situation, it is only 6 weeks away and there is already a contract on the home in question. I would go with it if i was in your shoes. You can schedule closing for your place for the day after closing for the buyers's home. Worse case, the buyers sale falls through. This could occur in a week or in 6 weeks. But there is better than 50% chance that the buyers sale does NOT fall through. Also keep in mind if you decide to reject this offer, then any future buyers might have issues that cause your sale to fall through, even if there is no home sale contingency. In your case, I would go with the bird in the hand and take the risk and plan your closing 6 weeks out. the only reason I suggest this is because they already have a buyer and a scheduled closing date. This is HUGE.

During a poor response despite multiple showings and price reductions, a buyer made an offer on 5/8/15 and insisted on 5/29 closing, giving us just three weeks to move contents of our house in NJ to a couple of new town homes in Blaine WA, one primarily to use as storage while we build a new home nearby; we had to pay extra to the moving company to expedite the move, three day packing and two day load ending on 5/28. The sale contract had a mortgage contingency however in "Sufficient Assets" section there was mention that buyer will need funds from his home sale, that was under contract and the contract was verified by my realtor however there was no contingency clause in our contract for his home sale. Buyer's mortgage was approved shortly, which was only for $100k since he expected to use entire proceeds of his home sale to purchase mine. Then one week prior to scheduled closing date, my realtor informed me the buyer's buyer walked and that my buyer signed release to his buyer (God only knows why). My realtor prepared an extention to the contract since the buyer had capacity to take an additional loan which would need around three weeks and his mortgage company agreed to the loan, subject to underwriting. In the meantime I also agreed to make allowances to fix the driveway and had a couple of other things fixed which were reported in inspection, whilst the painful home contents move occured. This morning the realtor called me to say the buyer is not interested in purchasing the home (no reasons given) and sent me a release form to sign (I have not signed), so $10,000 ernest money may be released to the buyer. I'm at loss if I should fight for a piece of $10k or just let it go. Other complications and inconveniences due to an earlier 5/29 move is that I had to move to WA in April since my client insisted I start; my wife stayed behind to deal with the movers and to wait on her business sale closing, scheduled around 6/13. She is so stressed out, is currently staying in a hotel, whilst the home is empty and devoid of any furniture, all of which would have been tolerable had the home sale gone through. I think this is the biggest screwup we've been involved in, since I moved to the US some 18 years ago. I can't believe it happened to us. Can't wait for her to join me on 6/20. I think we'll spend the following weekend in Vegas just to help release her stress; at this time I really could not care about much else. All this, to be closer to our daughter and her family especially a granddaughter and second one on the way; yeah a silver lining to a cloud.