Reo Offer to local bank

[Antonio Vicidomini]

Hello, I'm new to the forum and wanted to join in hope of some help and tips for directions from  experienced buyers regarding my topic. 

I will start with the details regarding the property then where I'm at now

Back in May of 15' i came across a property that was heading to sheriff sale due to foreclosure, i was planning on bidding cause this house is in the perfect location to me, close to work and my family and has plenty of land etc. which make it ideal for my needs. Anyway prior to heading to the court house i did a little research and found out the homeowner was still living in the house, and bank had been fighting to evict him for the past 7 years! Don't ask me how this person was still in there house cause i have no clue, but anyway the bank filed a lis/pendens vs the homeowner back in 08' long story short i found out that property had (a high) child support lien on it so i decided to bail on the sheriff sale and sit back and figured the back would take it at auction. Sure enough with an approx amount due of $ 396K in April bank gets it back. They finally evict the owner by getting him arrested at his house on back child support, within a few weeks bank has a moving company and other people there clear everything out furniture old car in the driveway etc. Figured this is my shot to get involved, so i contact the bank directly mind you this is a local bank 6 branches tops in a small area of southern NJ, after talking to a few people I'm now talking directly to the assistant vice president, so I've been talking to him since April, explained my interest in purchasing the property and willing to submit an offer, he tells me they are still working on this and it's not ready for sale yet, every few weeks i call and ask when is this property going to be available the answer seemed to be the same "we are looking for a listing agent" or "Probably going to be listed by the end of the month" after months of endless phone call i contact him again in July, suddenly his realtor listing soon to come talk had changed and his exact words were that the bank had considered taking offers! Great he then proceeds with telling me who and where to send a letter of intend to buy, i put an offer based on recent sales of similar homes within that area this was about 10 business days ago which i know they received it cause the bank person called me July 31 as i had left him a message the day before to be on the lookout for the letter. Sorry about the book here but i wanted to explain the situation the best i could, anyway i haven't heard a word or got any sort of response from the bank by mail phone etc. i really like and want the house and was hoping at the least i would get a counter offer back from the bank if they didn't like my number. My question here is what do i do at this point? i know the original note from the homeowner was $ 240K he owned the land and just took a loan out to build the house, i don't think he paid much into the note as the bank filed lis/pendens about a year after the loan was issued. House assessment on file with the township is about $ 300K i would assume if this house was listed on the market by a realtor right now it would be in the ($ 250 to 265K) range. Based on this info what do you feel a fair offer would be? My original offer was with a 5% of sale price due on signing of contract and another 30% cash at closing with the rest being financed. I just don't know which way to go, is it normal for banks to take this long to make a decision? or why didn't they counter offer if they don't like my price? So what should i do now? Do i let some time go by and send another offer slightly higher? I was told by a retired realtor agent that if the bank accepted my first offer right away i probably offered too much, and said this type of negotiation are done on a going back and forth pace. 

I'll leave it at this and thank everyone on here in advance for any tips and suggestions, sorry about the long story but I'm just lost and looking for some directions on where or what to do with this. Thank you