Your scenario of everyone standing around the fax machine only makes sense if, 1) no one has anything else to do, 2)that anyone else is actually in the office (QUITE a few agents hereabouts work from home, and only come in for "up" or office time), 3) that EVERYONE in the office has an offer pending on the one property that you are working on, and, most importantly, 4) there is a SERIOUS intergrity problem in your office.
Despite claims of the opposite, the real estate business is conducted differently---for different reasons---thoughout the country.