Property Limbo or What Happens Between Auction and REO

Hi Fans,

Pardon the delay in posts; the life of an entrepreneur is not always exciting. In fact many days are filled with chilling to bank hold-music, seeking answers no one wants to give and chasing your tail to the point that you want a stiff drink long before noon rolls around. But I digress. I finally nailed down a status for the Oak Forest property, which as you may recall went to auction several weeks ago. After weeks of phone tag with the lawyer who, to her credit, was playing the same game with the bank's I'm-on-a-permanent-vacation loss mitigation guy, we finally connected.
So here's your golden nugget for the week: what kind of offer can you put on a house that has been to auction and not sold, but is technically not an REO since the bank does not yet have the deed? Answer: the bank will only accept the starting auction bid plus a minimal amount to cover legal fees. In the case of OF, the asking price is $100,000 and the bank wants $1,000 to cover the vampire's er lawyer's fees;-) We would have to buy the house as-is, like in a judicial sale, and there would be no BPO or opportunity to negotiate the price down.
Knowing how much work needs to be done on this particular property we will, of course, not be submitting an offer. The good news is that our contact info will be filtered down to the bank's realtor co. and we will be contacted once the bank gets the deed. How exciting. I'm seeing many follow up calls in my future.

Okay kids, that's all for now. File this away 'cuz not only did I not know the answer to this situation, but neither did the lawyer with whom I've been speaking.