The asking price of a property has nothing to do with what the former owner owed, if it did, nothing would be selling. The bank hires a local appraiser to appraise the property an dthen they have their own formula for discounting that value to sell in the time frame they desire, the quicker the time frame, the more the discount. Once teh bank places a value on the property it is given to a local approved realtor to sell. that office then can begin to take offers on the property, the final sales price or what the bank will accept is granered by how much activity there is. if you have the only offer you may get it less than if there are 2, 3 or 6 offers say where people are competing and driving up the price. the old addage is the value of any property is what someone is willing to pay for it.

Some things you should know if buying bank owned properties are they are sold as is, so do your inspection prior to bidding as banks usually do not allow any contingincies. your deposit should be at least 1% of the sales price and your deposit should be a bank check, be ready to close in 30 days, dont ask the bank to fix anything or pay anything and finally you can not change anything on the banks purchase agreement. good luck Margaret