Getting the ball rolling on a purchse

Hi all

we agreed on a price of a property purchase with the vendor on Tuesday, & its a 'done deal' – at least verbally. anyways the REA said he would post a copy of the contract to our house address, a copy to our solicitor and a copy to the vendors solicitor on Wed. So heres friday and it still hasn't arrived, so I called him and he said that he only has 1 copy of the contract which stays in his office, and he has told the vendors solicitor to post a contract to our solicitor, which still hasn't arrived. the REA said we just need to wait until we get the contract & to sit tight and it should be there soon.

for a standard private treaty in NSW does it usually take a week from verbal agreement of offer to get the contract & then to try and get exchange to happen quickly? meanwhile the property is still listed in the REA's window & online, we dont want to get gazumped…

i know i am probably being impatient, but im just wondering if this is 'normal' or if it seems like someone is dragging the chain a little? it is a buyers market & there were several diff. people interested in the property and thats why im just a little worried, especially since its now the weekend and we wouldnt know if they are still showing people through the property to try and get a higher offer… we dont want to lose it to someone else and we dont want to organise our pest&build inspections till after we've exchanged (vendor agreed to our offer being subject to pest/building).

Any advice appreciated thanks all.