Newsflash: Can’t seem to win a house bid

I have put in 4 house bids at this point in Orange County, range of $2-3 million, and the last 3 of which were 100+k over asking and we keep losing our bids. We waived everything except an inspection contingency (waiving appraisal, mortgage, etc), have a pre-approval letter from the banks, with >20% down. I can’t figure out what’s wrong. Our agent seems great and well experienced, but can’t tell if it’s an issue with our offers, our agent, or if that’s just how the market is. Would appreciate any thoughts. Apparently love letters with offers are illegal here so we haven’t been doing those.