Jill Blevins

As a realtor, my job is to get the best price for my buyers or sellers. It doesn't serve me well to do anything else, and I've lost sleep many times worried about clients' offers. I just lost a deal where my buyers offered over the asking price and still didn't get the home. I just closed with buyers who made a full price offer on a very stale short sale, which, the day after their offer, another offer came in just below, meaning they would have also lost out with a lesser offer.

Sarah, you don't have to use a realtor if you don't think we have value -- there's a lot more to this job than just bringing buyers and sellers together.

If you're trying to make a quick profit or you're waiting for the market to hit bottom, your advice seems sound and perhaps the stock market might be a better vehicle for you. If you want to own a home, and want a particular style, location, price, and you find it -- then it's a good deal, isn't it? A few thousand dollars over or under isn't going to change the satisfaction you have waking up in a home you enjoy. - Tue May 20 2008, 12:02

The last two transactions I've worked on have both had multiple offers. One home, which was on the market for nine months with no activity, had four buyers competing for it. I've currently got a home on the market with four very interested parties.

You can't generalize, even in Portland. Block by block, sometimes house by house, conditions are dramatically different. If it's a good buy, it's going to go quickly. Prices on desirable homes have increased, regardless of what's going on nearby.

If you pull out of the deal, would you regret not owning that home in the years to come? That would be the question I'd ask you. CNN Money isn't going to wake up in that home every morning. - Fri May 9 2008, 11:04

I work with an amazing lender (see below) who gets my clients in similar circumstances on a program. He keeps checking in with them, as do I, to do whatever we can to keep them motivated. Sooner than everyone expects, they're in the house they didn't think they'd ever be able to qualify for.

Time and a little focus solves all credit problems.

I've got two cute little families on a program right now. Find yourself a good agent you can trust, and she or he will help you to where you want to go. - Fri May 9 2008, 10:54