We're definitely still in a buyer's market for real estate. The buyer's market began back in about 2006-2007 and should continue through at least the first part of 2011.

So what do you need to know and do to take advantage of this?

Before looking at buying you should begin by deciding if now is the right time for you to buy.

Buying a home, condo or townhouse because you are moving here or to use for a getaway or vacation home would be a good reason to buy now as long as you can really afford to do so.

Buying something as a long-term investment, if you can afford to do so, could also be the right thing for you to do at this time.

Once you've determined that you do want to buy now, you need to address one of the most important steps in being prepared to take advantage of this buyer's market: getting the financing for your purchase worked out. In my experience, the best deals will require that you have either a preapproval letter for a loan or proof of funds for a cash purchase and in many cases they will be required with any offer you submit.

The worst mistake you can make in a buyer's market where the best deals often get sold quickly is to not be fully prepared with proof that your financing of the purchase is lined up.

To show you how this affects your ability to take advantage of this market, I'll give you some information about a couple of my clients' recent dealings.

In the first case I had a client come down from Canada looking for a great deal on a condo with a good waterview either of Tampa Bay or the Gulf. I found the perfect deal for him and emailed him the listing within a few days of the condo coming on the market. It was just the next weekend when he got here and he liked what he saw so he had me call the listing agent about submitting an offer. When I called I found out that it had just gone under contract and in the 7 days it was on the market had several offers submitted on it.

The fact that my client wanted to come here to see the property before he bought it was not an issue that we could have done much about. However, even if that hadn't been a problem there were two other issues that might have still gotten in the way for him. The first was not having his financing fully arranged. The second was not recognizing how good a deal it already was - he wanted to try to get it for much lower than it was listed for. I'll go into that in a minute.

The second case was a client who came here to find a second home that they would be using part of the year. They wanted something in Dunedin and the community had to allow the owners to have a dog.

We found one that they really liked and was very rare because it was not attached to any other villas and also had a big, fenced backyard.

My client went back home saying he wanted a few days to think about it. I warned him not to delay as there had already been an offer that was nearly accepted and the property had been on the market less than a month. The next day the listing agent called to let me know they were expecting an offer that day that would likely be acceptable and I called my client to let him know. He did not want to be rushed.

The next day I found out that the villa was now under contract and my client had missed out on the best deal for what they wanted. I found out that part of the reason for the delay was that he wanted to speak with his financial advisor about how he was going to make the purchase to work out the best tax consequences. Since it was the weekend when this all happened he had to wait until Monday to talk with him.

This is a perfect example of why it is important to work out the financial arrangements before starting to look at properties.

I bring these examples up because a lot of people have false information that because it's a buyer's market sellers have to negotiate down, or that properties don't sell quickly and that you should take your time. Actually that is true sometimes BUT not for great properties that are priced well or for ones that are a great deal.

Let me summarize some key points if you want to make the most of the buyer's market:

If you don't recognize an exceptional deal, you will never get one.

If you don't act quickly and give a strong offer when you find an exceptional deal, you will most likely lose it.

If you aren't fully prepared with your financing lined up, including preapproval or proof of funds letters, you won't be able to act quickly enough on an exceptional deal.

There are exceptions to this but in my recent experiences I've found that these hold true more often than not.

One point I want to emphasize which I briefly described in the first example.

When you find an exceptional deal, don't lose it because you think you can get it for a lot less since the sellers "are probably desperate" or "they'll probably take less because of how the real estate market is doing". There are times when you can negotiate a seller or bank down on a property and times when it is already priced so well that it will be snatched up very quickly at the listed price. You either need to know enough to recognize this or listen to your realtor when they tell you this (especially when they provide enough information to show this is the case).

Knowing this information can provide you with a foundation on which you can proceed successfully in your real estate purchase so that you don't let the right time to buy slip away.