Ethical conduct and filing a complaint

[Brenda Sacchetto]

Hi experts!
I had a recent situation occur that I'm thinking to file a complaint about but I'd like your input to see if this is viable.

I am not an agent but have been following listings of potential foreclosures in my area-we are looking to buy a home. I noticed a house where the for sale sign had gone up and down a few times, it was currently off the market bit was listed as a pre-foreclosure. I decided to knock on the door of the home to ask the homeowner if her house was for sale or what we going on. She invited me in, showed me around and said if I was interested in buying it she'd give it to me for XXX (which was above market value) but I needed to decide right away, because she needed to make a few decisions (not admitting that the home was in pre-foreclosure status) oh! and by the way she was also a real estate agent.
I went home, returned the next day notifying her that it was way over our budget and gave her a number that was our bottom line. She then said for us, she would do a short sale submitting only our offer to the bank but we needed to get approved through her lender, not our own. I agreed to call him and went home excited about this house. We called her lender, who seemed a little "snakey" went through all the questions and he was supposed to send us loan information but never did.
Anyway, the next day I went to pull up the listing to show the pictures of the home to my girls and I saw that it was listed to the public as a short sale, for our agreed upon price. I called the homeowner/ agent right away who said that she had decided to give the house to an investor friend in her office and sorry but better luck next time. I called my agent (not connected to these folks) anyway, he came over New years day and put the offer through first thing this morning. Guaranteed it was the first offer received. He called me to say that we are the back up offer and that the listing agent who is also the investor of the company that she is connected with is the one putting forth the cash offer on their agents house, and I'm confident she is getting money from them for the listing. Aside from the fact that it was a bummer it ended up this way, is this ethical??? Seems like an inside kinda trading situation and a bit criminal! I want to complain to the Ca. board of Realtors regarding Homeowner , listing agent, and broker. Any thoughts?