Buyer's remorse is common, but here are five ways to beat it Most people have experienced buyer's remorse in some form, whether it's feeling guilty over the price paid for a new pair of shoes or a jab of regret after splurging on some unneeded tech gizmo. But when it comes to one of the most expensive purchases in a consumer's life, a home, feelings of remorse can be a lot more intense, easily rattling otherwise confident home buyers and causing them to second-guess what they liked about a house in the first place. Luckily, many local real estate markets today are buyer's markets; there's lots of inventory to look at and often ample time to negotiate on price, said Eric Cunliffe, senior vice president of RealEstate.com. Those factors greatly decrease the chances of buyers completely changing their minds -- and wishing they'd gone for a different house -- after the fact. "In 2005, people felt desperate to get out there and get there first and make their offer," added Nancy Riley, president of the Florida Association of Realtors. "Now they do have the luxury of being able to negotiate." That said, buyer's remorse often pops up regardless of what the real-estate market is like, especially for first-time buyers. Unless someone is "particularly unemotional" or has gone through the process of buying a home many times, it's very normal to second guess a home-purchase decision, Cunliffe said.........

This is one tab the house won't pick up. It's among today's most popular retirement-savings strategies: Buy the big house, hope the real-estate boom continues and then trade down at retirement, thus freeing up home equity that will pay for years of early-bird specials. Sound appealing? Trouble is, you will fork over a heap of dollars -- and you'll end up with a surprisingly small nest egg. Living large: To understand why, imagine you are age 35, have a $400,000 home with a $300,000 mortgage and are looking to retire at age 65. What's the best way to build yourself a nest egg? You might stick with your current home, pay down that mortgage over the next 30 years and stash your spare cash in stock and bond mutual funds. Call this the "small-house strategy" (though, in many parts of the country, a $400,000 home wouldn't be exactly small)......

You've found your dream condo, and you're ready to relax among the mango trees and swaying date palms. Hold everything. To keep from getting stuck with a lemon, you've got to do some homework. Here are the seven most important questions you need to ask before buying a condo. 1. "What's the Beef?" Take a look at the minutes of the condo association board meetings to see what the owners have been griping about. If everyone was complaining about the faulty plumbing or the gardener's absence, you know that the complex is having management difficulties. Even if there aren't any complaints, reading the minutes will reveal the sorts of projects that are under way at the complex -- projects the seller may have neglected to mention. 2. "Who's Been Naughty and Who's Been Nice?" Find out the delinquency rates of present owners. If people aren't paying their association dues on time, that is either a sign of discontent or an indication that the association might be underfunded. 3. "How Much Is In the Repair Fund?".......

We're smack in the middle of prime house-selling season. The National Association of Realtors predicts that 6.6 million existing homes will change hands this year. But many markets around the country are cooling, and the inventories of homes for sale are rising. Compared to the hot real estate market of recent years, you can no longer automatically expect to sell a house quickly and for a high price. However, sensible pricing and careful presentation can go a long way toward hastening a transaction. Follow these four tips, and you'll be on your way to selling your home for a good price this summer: 1. Find Out What Your House Is Worth You can't charge the right price unless you know what that is. So do a little research: * Go online. For a free Multiple Listing Service Home Market Check that shows what other residences like yours sold for recently in your area, visit the HomeInsight Web site. Or, check out Yahoo! Real Estate and click on "What's my home worth." Finally, visit Realtor.com, where you can browse more than 2.5 million residential listings and take advantage of several services that can help you to determine your home's value. * Check local real estate listings. To get a more accurate sense of your home's worth, look at local real estate listings (often searchable by neighborhood, house size, and price on local realtors' Web sites) for a sense of what houses of similar size, condition, locations, and amenities are going for in your area. Large real estate brokerage firms tend to have the most sophisticated Web sites. Some of my favorite realtor sites include Coldwell Banker, Century 21, and Re/Max. * Attend open-house showings. To get to know a market in a weekend, check open-house listings and attend these events to see what your neighbors are selling their homes for. How do their homes look compared to yours? How are they priced? Talk to the real estate agents hosting the events to find out which properties are moving and why. Asking these questions can help you get a quick handle on the market -- and let you know what you need to do to prepare your home for sale. * Get a comparative-value

The Web just keeps coming up with new ways to help make buying or selling a house easier. But the focus has gone from information to conversation; many sites are designed to enable users to freely exchange knowledge and opinions about places to live and homes for sale. Free MLS listing - Iggys House Iggys House offers a valuable service for owners who want to sell their homes themselves: free access to the multiple listing service (MLS). The MLS is a database of information about on-the-market homes that real estate brokers share. Real estate agents use the MLS to connect buyers with sellers. Today some 70 percent of all houses are sold through the MLS. In the past few years discount real estate brokers started selling access to MLSs for a flat fee starting at around $300. According to Joe Fox, founder of Iggys House, some 1.2 million people went the for-sale-by-owner route in 2006. About 800,000 of them were successful. "The new service is a no-brainer for people like that," he says. "It will open you up to more exposure." He adds that clients have trouble accepting that this Iggy's is a free service. "People love free," he says, "but they keep asking about the catch. There is no catch." Sellers are free to load up their listings with as much description, data, and photos of the property as they care too, including video tours. Fox hopes, but does not require, that clients who use the free service will migrate to his other site, BuySide Realty, which acts like a traditional real estate broker except that it rebates 75 percent of its commissions back to buyers at closing. Getting answers - Zillow.........

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