Just remember that the realtor works for himself, not for you. No offense, but you have a firm grasp of the obvious. This is true almost 100% of the time when

Just remember that the realtor works for himself, not for you. No offense, but you have a firm grasp of the obvious. This is true almost 100% of the time when you are "hiring" someone to work for you. In any transaction you should do some research yourself, get some references, and so on. When buying properties, my wife and I have always used the agent as a sort of voice-command Googlebot. Tell her (it's been in a her in all of our cases) what we want, what our budget is (usually holding back about 10% of what we really want to spend), and then go over the listings we're sent. We'll often do a quick drive-by and scout the neighborhood first and then use the agent to make the appointments and shuttle us around, and then finally handle any paperwork. I always get a home inspection, and I go around with the inspector as he is going through the house. I also escort the inspector when he is going over properties I've sold (one inspector shorted out the fuse panel (yeah, fuses) when doing an inspection for a buyer on my first house. He was ham-handed when removing the fuse box cover, touched a fuse and made sparks. He tried to cite that on his report as a faulty fuse box and I called him on it and made him account for his own error). I also tend to make it pretty clear, in plain English, up front that I like to find realtors, lawyers, accountants, etc that I can work with over many years. Attempt to screw me now and you'll lose a significant amount of future/repeat business, plus referrals. Most people can spot a sucker, and can also spot someone who is knowledgeable. Spend some extra effort on the latter, and the whole transaction process will be easier and more rewarding.