Hi, I live in Canada, so things may be different here with respect to buying a home but in general there is usually a 30 day period (roughly) between when an offer is accepted and all subjects are removed and money from the purchaser is given to the buyer. Once the money passes hands, the seller usually has to be out, either that day or soon after.
If you really like a house, the best possible advice I could give is to have a building inspection done. A place can look amazing but it can have structural issues or hidden issues that you may not know how to look for etc... These things could put a person in finanical ruin later on. Also, if you love a place and a building inspection done by a licensed inspector shows that there are certain things that will need repair within the near future (i.e. the roof or chimney etc..) then you can re-negotiate and lower your original offer to reflect those repairs that you will now have to take on. This happened to us regarding the roof and we re-offered 10,000 less than our original offer and the seller accepted our new offer.
Also, make sure that the person selling has shown you a disclosure statement that discloses any and all issues regarding the house. This is a legal document where the seller has to list if there have been any leaks and if they've been repaired, if there has been pests of any kind etc.. etc..
You can put an offer on a place and put 'subjects' on the offer such as, this offer is subject to having a building inspection done and the results of that building inspection are satistfactory to us, and if there is a well, you could put another subject that states the water will be tested and the results of that test approved by us, and even less serious things like if you really love something in the garden, like a bench, you could make the offer subject to the bench being included in the sale of the home. All kinds of stuff like that.
Hope this helps a bit and hope you get your dream home!
p.s. I used to have a Pembroke Corgi. My family got him from the Humane Society in Toronto back in the 70's. We had him for 15 years. They are great dogs!! Does yours nip your heels when you run?