When Ilona Bray, a writer and nonpracticing attorney, and her husband went shopping for a home in northern California in 1999 -- the dawn of the housing boom and the peak of the dot-com boom -- she was stunned by the speed at which homes entered and exited the market.

I d hear about some house on the market, go look at it and then I d have to be ready to jump on it and get our offer in as soon as possible, she says. We must have looked at 40 houses, and put in offers on two other houses before the one we bought a 1917 Craftsman bungalow in North Oakland.

For guidance, Bray hired a buyer s agent, who not only helped the couple scout out houses, but also managed to negotiate some price breaks for repair needs discovered by the inspector. We were impressed, she says. The market was so hot that some buyers were waiving the inspection contingency entirely.

For Bray and many other buyers, having a skilled professional was invaluable during the housing price run-up. However, as volatility in the market continues to erode home prices, enlisting a buy-side real-estate agent to negotiate on your behalf may be less important, says Stephen Brobeck, the executive director of the Consumer Federation America, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C. It is a lot easier for you to negotiate a lower price today than it was four years ago, he says. In fact, going it alone may even improve your ability to negotiate a lower price, Brobeck says. There is a 2% to 3% commission that the seller and his agent could concede at basically no loss because you are representing yourself.

Still, if you re buying, there are some compelling reasons to put an agent in your corner today. Not all buyers are savvy enough to handle the process on their own, says Bray, who wrote Nolo s Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home. And although the risk of shelling out too much for a home today may be less than it was a couple of years ago, buyers can ask sellers for a lot more than they used to because there is now a glut of homes on the market, she says. For buyers attempting to wade through the excess of foreclosures and short-sales now on the market, an agent is a must, Bray says.

Of course, not all buyers agents are alike, and small differences in how they work could affect their commitment to your interests. To ensure that you get the home you want at the best price, seek out so-called exclusive buyer s agents, or brokers who work solely on behalf of buyers, Brobeck says. Like traditional real-estate agents, exclusive buyer s agents typically split the commission with a seller s listing agent. However, buyer s agents don t accept listings, says John F. Sullivan, president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents, an industry association in Washington, D.C. That means buyers will avoid being pressured to look at their agent s company s listings, in which there is likely to be a conflict of interest, he says.

Home buyers who use buyer s agents also avoid conflicts that may arise when buyers work with a property s listing agent rather than their own agent, says Thomas H. Oldfield, a real estate attorney in Tacoma, Wash. If the buyer reveals, for example, that they can afford more than they re offering, the seller s agent is obliged to notify the seller -- even if the agent says he can work with the buyer, as well, he says. Many states, Washington included, have adopted laws that allow real-estate agents to act as dual agents. In this situation, agents help sellers set prices. Then, if they are acting as dual agents for buyers, they help determine the buying price, he says. Such a scenario can not only trigger a conflict of interest since dual agents ultimately work for sellers, it can also put a crimp in the negotiations process as agents who receive commissions are paid more when buyers pay higher prices, Oldfield says.

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Another benefit of tapping an exclusive buyer s agent: They re more inclined to help buyers find and purchase For Sale By Owner, or FSBO, properties than traditional agents, Sullivan says. Traditional brokers tend to veer away from such listings because they often require taking on work for buyers and sellers without getting a full commission. Buyer s agents are expecting only to walk away with half the commission anyway, Sullivan says.

Michael Staszewski, a software developer in Fuquay Varina, N.C., says his buyer s agent was integral in helping him inspect his chosen FSBO property. In addition to her real-estate experience, she can pick out flaws in homes that I would never be able to identify, he says. And with a rolodex full of wholesale flooring and remodeling contacts, she s also well-connected, says Staszewski. Given the fact that most times as a buyer you re not paying for an agent s service anyway, it seems like a steal.