what is this bank doing??? advice from pro's please =( (agent, mortgage, sales)

[MWFJR352FAMILY]

My husband and I placed an offer on a bank owned home. Our real estate agent says the bank is sitting on their hands and he knows nothing about the status of our offer. He said it is very unusual for a bank to be responding this way. ( clearing throat...CHASE MORTGAGE!!!)
It's been almost 2 weeks and we have heard nothing from the bank.
However here is the really WEIRD part. We submitted our offer ( urged by our realtor to not offer what they were asking and to start off lower) for $6000 less than what the bank was asking for. Then after us waiting for en entire week, the bank lowers the price of the home we want by a whopping $5000 which makes their new listing price only $1230 higher than what we just offered!?!?!?! and to make matters worse the bank has STILL not responded to our offer. this makes no sense. It's as if we have not submitted anything at all.
After we submitted our offer, they suddenly dropped the pric and ignored our offer. They have NOT rejected our offer or given us a counteroffer. WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT!?!?!?!
It feels like as if they are hoping someone else comes along and snags the home at the price they are asking and ignoring our offer altogether. We'd gladly take whatever counter offer they asked to be honest.
Our realtor told us that he spoke with a bank rep and that they said the offer merely says " under review" and there is NOTHING they can do.
This smells fishy and my husband and I are feeling confused/awkward.
I totally understand a bank taking their sweet time to respond...that is not the issue. It's that every month they have been dropping the price on this home $5000 and once they received our offer, they dropped the price 2 weeks early as if they are putting us on hold, and allowing another potential buyer to swoop in and snag the house we want.
Opinions ...input- all welcome

[bbronston]

It might be possible that they want to create a multiple offer scenario and then ask for a "highest and best" offer from all the participants. It strikes me as unusual but not the weirdest thing I've heard of.

[Rakin]

Nothing is surprising with dealing with the logic of a Bank or a clerk with 100 folders on their desk. They may sit on offers for months waiting on others.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by Rakin

Nothing is surprising with dealing with the logic of a Bank or a clerk with 100 folders on their desk. They may sit on offers for months waiting on others.

Banks just don't behave like a typical seller. They're often large corporations where the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. They don't move quickly themselves, but when they finally decide they want to do something they expect you to jump and ask how high on the way up.

Whenever possible I suggest to my clients to pursue traditional sales and avoid REOs and short sales just for this reason. Luckily, traditional sales FAR out number REO/short sales in my area. So, it's rarely a problem for my clients.

[soup4you2]

Waiting 2 weeks is not that long at all.. Your Realtor should have advised you when offering on a short sale that it can and will most likely take months.

I think we went about 3 months on our sale before hearing from the bank. Then an additional 2 months because they kept messing up the paperwork.

[househunting523]

Originally Posted by soup4you2

Waiting 2 weeks is not that long at all.. Your Realtor should have advised you when offering on a short sale that it can and will most likely take months.

I think we went about 3 months on our sale before hearing from the bank. Then an additional 2 months because they kept messing up the paperwork.

I don't think the house she's referring to is a short sale.