Playing a Rigged Game?

[Jesse Smith]

I'm mostly writing this post to vent to people who will likely understand my frustration.  I'd also like to get advice or perspective from those who have strategies to swing the odds in their favor, when negotiating a purchase.

I'm a relatively small-time investor (currently 13 units).  Most of my properties are very close to home.  I'm also a realtor, and I've set auto alerts to notify me immediately when new houses are listed in my target area.

Yesterday, I got a notification of a 2/1 for $50k. Knowing the area, this property's ARV would be $135k, with about $15-20k invested. My plan, however would be to buy and hold, because rent would be around $1,100/mo.

As soon as I got the notification (within 2 min of listing), I called the agent.  She agreed to meet me at the property.  The owner was also there, and we chatted some.  He said he needed to move quickly bc of a family health issue, so he wanted a quick, painless, cash sale.  We had a great chat, and I said I needed my wife's approval for the purchase, and I would let them know within an hour.

Wife approved, and I called the agent with the full price offer within 30min.  I also offered to help the seller move items out of the house.  Her tune had changed, and she said they would be waiting until tomorrow to choose an offer.

She called me today at 4pm and said they had gotten 5 offers, all cash.  She asked for my best offer, and I offered an escalator up to $57,500, in $50 increments.  She called back 30min later to say they accepted another offer of $57,550.  

It seems to me that she gave my final offer to another buyer, who simply tagged $50 on and took the house.  This is extremely frustrating.  I would have loved to get that same opportunity to outbid their offer for a final acceptance.  Losing this house over $50 is maddening, and it makes me wonder what I could do differently in the future.

Thoughts or advice?