I may sell my home with a contingency that the buyer's home sells within 30 days. My realtor says there is a "bump" clause that allows me to keep the property listed, allowing others to purchase my home as if no offers are on the table. Why would the buyer waste their time with a contract since others can come in and buy it out from under them?
The buyer is not wasting his/her time. I haven't seen your particular "bump" clause, but most such clauses I have seen work like this: (1) buyer's obligation to close on the purchase of seller's property is contingent upon the sale of buyer's house; (2) seller can continue to market the property; (3) if seller receives an acceptable offer from a third party, seller can inform buyer of an intention to accept third party's offer (i.e., to "bump" buyer and terminate the buyer-seller contract); (4) buyer then has some period of time (3 days is common) to eliminate the contingency, i.e., to say that buyer's purchase of seller's property is no longer contingent on the sale of buyer's house; (5) if buyer eliminates the contingency, the contract between buyer and seller is still in effect, and the third-party contract is not valid.
Thus, buyer still has the right to buy the property. The bump clause just requires buyer to make a decision whether to eliminate the contingency.