4. Please don't mistake the agent for your parent.

Real-estate agents often find themselves in the role of counselor. After all, buying a house is a big and scary move. Just don't take it too far.

 "One couple I had, they're like, 'We don't know what we're going to do. Are we going to continue in college or get a job? What do you think?'" Dennis recalls. "Well," she told them, "I can't advise you on your life choices. I can only advise you on whether this property is right for your current situation."

 Her ultimate response: Maybe they should rent.

 "Of course as a Realtor, my interest is in making a sale, but I'm not going to put them in that situation," she says. "My integrity is more precious to me than making this commission check."

 In the end, treating an agent like a parent makes for tension and confusion. Figure out what you want first, then let your agent find it.

5.  Please don't turn your nose up curbside and refuse to view the inside.

Every time you walk through a property, a good agent is paying close attention. He's learning what turns you on and what turns you off. It further narrows the scope from the mass of listings.

 Scott Hack, with Finish Line Realty in Louisville, Ky., once filled a day with home-viewing appointments only to have the couple refuse to go inside eight of the 10 houses. It was either the neighborhoods or the lawns or maybe even the rain. Whatever the case, they stayed in the car.

 "If they're not happy, that's fine. But the other side of the coin is that most of the homes were occupied by sellers, who had cleaned up the home and left for a few hours," he says.

 As a courtesy to the sellers and listing agents, Hack went through the homes anyway. He says he wasn't offended by his clients, but he lost invaluable feedback from them: Which hardwood floors, which kitchen plans, which nooks or rooms would really ignite a reaction?

 "Just little things you can pick up, that would have been nice," he says. 

 The lesson: Never turn down time touring a home with your agent.

 6. Please don't refuse to believe the agent might know something.

Put yourself in this agent's shoes: The buyer, an aging woman, has said she wants to move to a small, maintenance-free property close to work. But she keeps demanding to see large, rural properties just like the one she's selling. She wants to accommodate her cats.

 This was a client of Janice Leis, a broker in Pennsylvania, Florida and New Jersey. And cases like this put her in a bind. "My business is based on referrals," she says. "If I'm not honest with someone, they're going to tell somebody later how miserable they are."

 This phenomenon is common, agents say. Clients will lay out their wishes, then fall in love with a house they've found that meets none of them but has a wicked cool kitchen and patio.

 A good agent steers buyers away. A good buyer listens.

 "All my other clients will laugh and say, 'Oh, you're right. Get me out of here. You're 300% correct. I wasn't thinking about this,'" Leis says.

 And the cat lover? "She's still looking, and she's going to be a professional looker. You have people who are controlling to a point where they become detrimental to themselves."

 Best course: Be specific in your needs, then trust your agent to fulfill them.

7.  Please don't think you can get a better deal — a much, much, much, better deal.

Christian Cardamone, a broker with Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty, spent months showing a Chicago woman small beachfront homes only to have her lowball each property by $50,000 to $70,000. (Bing: How low is too low for a bid on a home?)

 The woman could buy in cash, and she liked several of the homes. With one, the seller dropped to within $10,000 of her offer. Yet, she still refused.

 "She still would have been getting a great deal on it at that price, but she decided she was going to end on her terms or she wasn't going to do it," Cardamone says. "She assumed that she was entitled to get this deal because of all the doom and gloom she sees on the news."

 It annoyed the agent: "She felt that she knew more about this (North Carolina coastal) market from Chicago than I did, who's been practicing real estate here for eight years," he says.

 Her hard-headed frugality ultimately hurt her. "She missed out on what she wanted," Cardamone says.

 The moral: Don't be a cheapskate.

 8. Please don't two-time your agent.

Real-estate agents don't get a dime until they make a sale. They put in the hours, spend weekends and evenings showing homes, all in exchange for that one-day-it-will-come commission check.

 There's nothing wrong with doing a test-run with a few agents to find one you like. In fact, the pros recommend it. Taking an afternoon of time with each of them is akin to conducting an interview. Nor is there anything wrong with firing an inadequate agent.

 But asking several to show homes at once isn't only unethical, it's also impractical. First of all, the real pros won't accept you as a client. Second, it's more effective for you to work with one agent, who can note your preferences and organize listings.

 What some first-time buyers may not know, agents say, is that every agent is able to view and show any listing. A buyer needn't contact the seller's agent. The buyer's agent will do that.

 Last lesson: You'll get your best work from someone who knows he's getting paid.