A mysterious fire with no apparent cause is enough to make a property seem like something out of a horror flick. But, four mysterious fires in the same place inside the same home is enough to make even the most seasoned REO broker wonder about his or her situation.

Such is the case with Mike Shannon, an REO broker with ReMax in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. Mike says he still laughs about the time when he and a co-worker had a bidding war developing over a property they listed. Mike remembers the first time the bank countered the bidder’s offer, a mysterious fire broke out inside the house. Then, another bid came in, the bank countered it, and a fire sparked up in the same residence again. Mike remembers this happening four times and each time the only common denominator was the fact that the bank had just placed a counter bid on an offer. To this day, Mike has no idea who caused the fires. But, he does know a fire seems like a great way to reduce a property’s bidding value. “There seems to be a strong correlation between the bank’s counter offer and the fires,” Mike says. But, then again, it’s hard to say since the home was finally sold and the culprit was never found.