Question for anyone with real estate (financing) knowledge

[Tre]

These so-called 'agents' have made 3 very bad assumptions:

1) that I'm emotionally attached to the house
2) that I'm not willing to risk losing my deposit
3) that I do not know the local housing market

Right now, home inventory levels are at record highs, and with another huge round of foreclosures yet to come, I know that prices will continue downward well into 2008. 

My realtor screwed up bigtime and doesn't want to admit it.  They're in scramble mode and it comes down to a very simple choice - they can either suck it up and take the $9000 commission or they can roll the dice on me and get $0.  And they could even get sued for the $5000 deposit, so their potential loss could get up to $14,000. 

They have a lot to consider - they know how to reach me. 

[Tre]

Ok, got the house.

I ended up caving in and contributing $400 more, but I can't really complain - the seller was paying about $7000, the lender paid $1000, and my realtor paid $8000. 

I won the battle bigtime, but at the end of the day, I still overpaid and will most likely be down $40,000 a year from now.  But looking long-term, I'm still $150,000 better off than all the neighbors who moved in 2 years ago when the neighborhood was new, and as long as the area can recover to at least that level within 5 years, I'll be ahead of the game.  Even if it takes 10 years, it will still have been a good purchase. 

Thanks for the advice, guys. 

[Al-Gebra]

why do you want to live in sacramento? you might as well move to fort worth . ..