Question about deposit

I am learning all about buying a house nowadays. Ok, so here is my question. As I understand it, you put in your offer, and when it is accepted, you put a deposit of around 10% to secure the deal until contracts are signed? Is that correct? And so my question is, if you are able to buy a house because you are selling your house, where does the deposit come from if the house hasn't sold yet?

Our house is going on the market and -touch wood- should sell fairly quickly. So I am not worried about that (we are in a high demand area and the market is strong). I have found a house we are going for and we are going to put in an offer this week. Do we have to wait until the house is sold to do this or can we make the offer while we are in the process?

I am learning all about buying a house nowadays. Ok, so here is my question. As I understand it, you put in your offer, and when it is accepted, you put a deposit of around 10% to secure the deal until contracts are signed? Is that correct?

We never had to put down any sort of deposit on any of the houses I/we have bought in the UK.
No money changed hands until the bank transfer went through at the very end.

We put down a deposit and as Q-G said it happens at the very end....upon completion (not when you exchange contracts).

Oh i see what you mean now, now that Jules has said it.... yes, i put down a deposit in the sense that i did not take a 100% mortgage.  But it's not a deposit like you're thinking of it, Stella... it's not money up front.  It's just the difference between the purchase price of your new house, and the amount of the mortgage you're taking on it.

It's just such a confusing thing - doesn't seem to be very straightforward. Well, fingers crossed, anyway.

As I understand it, when you make your offer you need to tell them it's an offer subject to sale of your existing home so they're aware that you are awaiting your home sale completion.

Yes, I have told the estate agent that we need to sell our home. I just put in an intial offer, probably too low but it should get the ball rolling? The house has been on the market since Sep 06, it was orginally 20,000 more than what they are asking now. I am hoping they go lower than asking, I am a bit nervous about all of this, if they come back saying the first offer is too low, do I just go up a bit more, gosh this is so nerve-wracking.

nerve-wracking it def is.  keep cool-

unlike the US, i never put a deposit down on the house until i actually signed the contract (it's called exchange or exchange of contracts here).  b/f that i had to pay for mortgage evaulation fee, surveys, etc.  but when i exchanged, i had to pay the deposit, mortgage completion fee, etc in one go.  i also had to start paying house insurance from that date. 

when we completed- the move in date- is when my mortgage company transferred the money to my seller's account.