Newsflash: ANOTHER BRUTAL LOSS (Vent Post)

Third time in a row we lost but this one really hits different.We’re in the Northeast. The house is solid but hasn’t been upgraded in 20 years, including the kitchen and the musty smelly unfinished basement. But it’s on a nice piece of land and we saw lots of potential.Seller allowed escalation, but only one round – basically; buyer puts in a starting bid, a ceiling and how much you want to escalate by (e.g. if next bid is 600k, you’ll escalate to 600k + whatever). I think this is a great way to do it as it allows for escalation, protects everyone and prevents drawn out bidding wars.Our offer was 30% down. Opening bid was 15% OVER the ask price ($93k over ask). We were willing to escalate a LOT, our ceiling was almost 30% OVER asking!! (almost $200k over the ask price). We waived every contingency.To counter cash buyers, we made our escalation bump $18k. Meaning, we’re willing to pay $18k MORE than the next closest bid. The thought being that even if the next closest offer was cash, we’d still be intriguing to seller cause we’re automatically $18k higher.WE STILL LOST!!Sure, houses are flying off the market in a matter of days around here, but nothing in our market has sold for anywhere close to 30% over list. Similar homes have gone for 2% higher than list, the most I’ve seen in the last several months is like 8% over list, for MUCH nicer homes.What else could possible be at play here?Is my agent just screwing up??