So from my "limited research" I was under the impression that you would bid at about 5-10% lower than the foreclosure price, but these bids are about 50% + lower.

Once you pay off all the other certificates, it generally only takes a few months to get to auction, where the certificate holders have No advantage in the bidding.  

Some partner or hire a contractor to give them reliable bids as well. 

You have about 7 days to do inspections, get bids, etc. and should the contract allow for contingencies, this is your time to get out, but risk losing EMD (This is where I may be wrong)4.

You're going to need to learn how to estimate by creating a scope of work and then signing values by getting bids.

After agreeing to put in the offer for me, then getting the address, then asking me for my bid amount, she suddenly "remembered" that she was already "going" to put in an offer for "an investor she had been working with for years and you know it would just be a type of conflict of interest if she put in offers for both of us and don't you see that's why she just couldn't help me." 

Both were homes i purchased with cash after the tornadoes in 2013 and one i sold for a 49K profit and the other one i live in which is worth well over 100K more than I have in it.My brother is currently working on getting his real estate license so we have access to the MLS and can write our own bids.  

We believe seller agent executed in such fashion as stated below because seller wants to sell to backup offer which is higher bid than our agreed upon purchase price in contract.

When we bid we were under the impression that both units were occupied, and therefore at least habitable as-is.  

Another thought is if you find a place you like, get an offer in on it (assuming you haven't noticed anything major), get your inspection, and get a contractor to bid the items noted in the inspection.