Believe that even if you have done your utmost to get things done well, still there are chances where things can go wrong somewhere. One such snag which home-buyers bump into is the gazumping. This is a dreadful thing which could have serious emotional and financial consequences on the home-buyers and drain them to the rock bottom. The very word 'gazumping' creates terror in the minds and hearts of virtually all the home-buyers. So it becomes essential to know what exactly is gazumping and what are the ways to stop one being gazumped?

The term 'gazumping' means to fiddle, which had its specific meaning concerned with the housing market originally. Imagine a situation where a seller or a real estate agent, agrees to a verbal offer provided by you either through a verbal agreement or simply by a handshake, and later accepting slightly higher offer from another buyer. Will it not cause distress and frustration to you? Will you not be disappointed or annoyed? Will not the tears roll down from your eyes? Will you not be broke down in trust? Will you not drain from financial loss? Not only for you, for everyone else, the answers for these questions, are an immediate YES.

Are you still confused? Coming to the point, gazumping is nothing but a situation where a seller agreed to an offer for the sale of his residential property, from a prospective buyer, either through a verbal agreement or merely by a handshake, and later rejecting his offer and letting the same to another buyer at a higher price. Here, the pity is that the first person who had the seller's assurance earlier is now left in the lurch. The consequences being, either he has to pay the higher offer which was promised by the second buyer or he has to keep looking out for other houses.

Normally, when there is a boom in the market and the demand and supply for the residential properties do not match well, gazumping may occur. Here, the seller is the gazumper and the buyer being the victim. In short, the seller wishes to get the best price for his residential property. The second buyer does not know the first buyer and is willing to pay more in order to drive out the first buyer from the sales. If the second buyer succeeds in the deal, then the first buyer is said to have been gazumped. At times, sellers can also be gazumped. When there is not much demand and the buyer finds a better property at a lower price offered by the first seller, then the buyer may come out from the deal leaving the first seller being gazumped.

One must be careful when dealing with selling or buying the residential properties. The decision of the sale or the purchase of the residential property must be underpinned by certain code of ethics, wherein the buyers and the sellers understand their rights and obligations with regard to the agreement. The procedure for buying the residential property is in jeopardy until the home-buyers enter into contracts with the sellers. This contract is nothing but the anti-gazumping contract which reduces the perils of gazumping.

The anti-gazumping agreement is advantageous for the both the buyers as well as the sellers as it adds value and gives assurance to the verbal agreement. This agreement defends both the parties by setting out a grace period, known as 'exclusivity period' after which the seller may look in for a different buyer. During this period, the buyer needs to speed up the purchasing process. Until the contracts are exchanged between the parties, the sale deed is not legally binding. Either of the parties can pull out any time leaving the other party with egg on their face.