You offered, the agent called with the magic words — "the vendor has accepted" — and then… nothing. Days pass. The contract doesn't arrive. The agent is suddenly hard to reach, and the listing is mysteriously still being shown. You may be in the middle of being gazumped: the vendor is sitting on your acceptance while your offer is quietly shopped to other buyers as a floor.
Australians have a word for it; American buyers know the same move as the seller "entertaining backup offers" after a verbal yes. Either way, the mechanics — and the defense — are identical.
"Accepted" means nothing until contracts are signed
This is the fact the whole play rests on. In most jurisdictions a verbal acceptance — even an enthusiastic, congratulatory one — creates no obligation on the vendor at all. Until contracts are exchanged (or a purchase agreement is fully signed), the vendor can take a higher offer the night before without breaching anything. Your "accepted" offer isn't a deal; it's a marketing asset the agent can use to extract a better one.
That's not cynicism — it's the incentive structure. Every extra dollar another buyer pays is commission to the agent and profit to the vendor, and the cost of keeping you warm while they look is zero. Unless you make it cost something.
The defense: put a clock on your acceptance
The moment you hear "accepted," the clock should start — yours, not theirs. The script: "That's great news. We'll have our deposit and signatures ready — please have the contract to us within 48 hours. If contracts aren't exchanged by [date], our offer is withdrawn." Calm, friendly, and in writing.
A vendor genuinely intending to sell to you loses nothing by moving quickly. A vendor stalling for a better offer now has to weigh the bird in hand flying away. The deadline doesn't create conflict; it surfaces the intention that was already there.
Keep looking — as a plan, not a bluff
The gazumping window exists between acceptance and exchange, and the single best protection is to stay a live buyer for exactly that window. Keep inspecting other properties. Keep your finance moving. If the agent hears you attended another open home on Saturday, so much the better — but the point isn't theater. If this vendor walks, you want your next option already scoped, because a buyer with alternatives negotiates differently and everyone can feel it.
Speed is the rest of the defense
Everything that shortens the gap between "yes" and "signed" shrinks the window you can be gazumped in. Have finance pre-approved before you offer. Have your solicitor or conveyancer lined up and told to expect the contract. Do the building and pest inspection as fast as the process allows. The buyers who get gazumped most are the ones who treat the verbal yes as the finish line and relax.
If you do get gazumped
It stings, but respond commercially, not emotionally. Ask the agent for the competing terms — sometimes the "better offer" is higher but weaker (slower settlement, finance not approved), and a clean, fast, unconditional position can win at your existing number. If you do raise, raise once, to a figure you set in advance, and attach the same exchange deadline. Never enter an open-ended bidding war against an offer you can't see; that's the phantom-rival game with higher stakes.
Weighing up a suspicious "someone else is interested" message right now? Paste it into Negotiately to see whether it's a wall or a bluff, or read up on the agent tactics playbook before your next move.