Really the key to victory is management and everything surrounding it.

We are not upset with my stepdad, plus he's now in his mid 80's - we thought it would be wrong to attempt to force him to move this late in his life.  

But then this does not help the Seller because he has to take the bid lower than mine.2) Bid higher than the highest bid, but deal with this situation ethically.As you suggested, and I concur, I should tell the Highest Bidder that I will also be a bidder and bid higher than his.HOWEVER, this seems to be a situation which will upset that Buyer.This situation CAN possibly arise because I am an Investor with resources.

I feel really upset by the time and energy we wasted with both properties, but I wanted to ask how common this is for sellers and agents to do?

So much is happening so don't forget to celebrate your small victories!!!!

What really upset me, is last night when I took my dog outside, I found a note on my back porch from someone asking me to call them about my house for rent.  

PM me, I have a good beaver county lawyer that you should talk too   Are you sure this was a judicial sale and not just an upset sale?

@Jeff O'Neal I'm so upset I just looked up the dates on all the meetups and checked my msgs today and saw I missed it by one day...

His daughter is now upset that I will not return Octobers rent and is saying that electrical is my problem.

I'd be very upset of our HOA changed the bylaws to allow a greater percentage of rentals.