My partner and I had an offer rejected on a house we’d fallen in love with, because the vendor had received an offer from another buyer who was proceedable (whereas we were still waiting for a buyer). Totally understandable. However, just a few days later, we received an offer on our flat and, seeing that our dream house was still listed on all the property sites, emailed the agent as a long shot, letting them know that we were now proceedable and offering our best price (significantly over asking price) just in case the property was in fact still on the market. I spoke to my friend about it, expecting her to share in my excitement, but she was horrified by what we’d done. I’d never heard of gazumping before, but she explained how immoral it is, and it left me feeling awful. To be honest, I think my partner and I were so wrapped up in the excitement of the whole process that we didn’t really consider the moral implications of potentially screwing over someone else who’d already had their offer accepted on the property we loved. Now that we think about it, we feel really shitty. I think we also felt like, as the property was still online and listed for sale, it was still fair game and any moral considerations were more on the part of the vendor than on us as buyers with no real knowledge of what had been agreed between the vendor and other potential buyers. Does anyone have any thoughts on this, how common this kind of thing is, and how guilty we should be feeling over it? My partner suggested we should maybe retract the offer but surely that would cause even more potential upset and frustration? Thanks in advance!