What is the Least Amount of Money You Have Lost a Bid By?

[Chase Fender]

In the past few months I have been hunting for my first deal. I have found a good wholesaler who has been a great help. Yesterday, I attended a showing/bid for a house. It was listed at $175,500 and had ARV conservatively at $260k. I had repairs at $35K and closings/taxes at $18K. My goal was to make $18-20k on the deal so I felt comfortable going up to $189k if the state of the property was what I thought.

There are a lot more details to this story, but in the end, although it may have actually needed around $40k in repairs, I still felt comfortable purchasing at $187k. The frustrating part came in when I lowered my number to $185K based on the reaction of a contractor who walked the property with me. He had done a few investments in the past, but sounded like he had been burned a couple of times. In hindsight, he may been a bit more conservative than I am. 

$187,800 ended up winning the bid. Either way, I would not have won it. But I did learn a lesson about sticking to my guns. Has a similar event happened to anyone else? What is the smallest amount of money you have lost a bid by?