I was negotiating a price on a house and just before the offer was accepted I was told someone else made another higher offer. Or so I thought....I offered 200K and was told that the other offer was higher and I lost the house. Now the house is back up for sale and if found out that the buyer paid 157K. This is from the county records. Also this was a bank owned house not an individual so I don't think there was cash under the table to make this happen. Is there something I'm missing?

Depends on the details of the other offer. Perhaps it was cash. Perhaps there was more earnest money. Perhaps they doubted your ability to close the deal. Perhaps the other party waived all contingencies.

I have been lower and beat out some other people before because I generally pay cash and can close. 

Agree with @JD Martin

I've sold to lower offers who had better terms. Waiving all inspections, 3 week close etc all factor into the decisions.

@Jeffrey Enkey A $43k difference seems big on a bank owned property (assuming all offers were cash and home was being sold "as-is"). If those two things are not accurate and they weren't all cash offers and maybe the home wasn't being sold "as-is" the obvious answer would be that things came up after mutual and the Buyer was able to negotiate the price down due to maybe an inspection or something else that may have come up during a due diligence period. Other concern would be if your offer wasn't cash maybe their offer was. Third thought is maybe they waived real estate commissions, something common if the buyer is their own agent. Without knowing much about the offer process these would be somethings I would consider. Could be any combination of the above scenarios.

Originally posted by @Peter Tiberio :

@Jeffrey Enkey A $43k difference seems big on a bank owned property (assuming all offers were cash and home was being sold "as-is"). If those two things are not accurate and they weren't all cash offers and maybe the home wasn't being sold "as-is" the obvious answer would be that things came up after mutual and the Buyer was able to negotiate the price down due to maybe an inspection or something else that may have come up during a due diligence period. Other concern would be if your offer wasn't cash maybe their offer was. Third thought is maybe they waived real estate commissions, something common if the buyer is their own agent. Without knowing much about the offer process these would be somethings I would consider. Could be any combination of the above scenarios.

Another possibility: the bank saw your offer as so far out of reality, and you needed financing, that it was never going to appraise and thus would be a waste of time. Combine that with someone offering cash or serious concessions and there you go.  

Price is only 1 part of the offer. Lots of other things make up an offer.

The house is on the market now for 344K.