You should never make an offer to purchase any house until you can honestly make this statement:

"This house meets my needs, and I would enjoy living here, and this house appears to be a reasonable value based on all the homes that I have seen in this search."

The statement contains three parts, and I want you to be comfortable with each.

First, the house must meet your needs. That means the location is acceptable, the bedroom and bath count is acceptable, and the neighborhood is acceptable. It is worthwhile to keep a notebook listing every house you visit, noting features, likes and dislikes, and at the end of each house-hunting journey, review the list to find common threads.

For example, you may find that you are particularly attracted to homes that offer a full unfinished basement with windows and a daylight entrance. If this feature moves onto the "need" list, it will affect which homes you visit in the future and will eliminate whole subdivisions where such homes simply don't exist.

Additionally, keeping notes of your house hunting helps you begin to compare house with house and location with location, a key skill in your ability to eliminate contenders for your next residence.

Next, you deserve to be happy in the house you call home. I know investors who are so focused on buying the "best deal" that they live in homes they dislike just because of a perceived favorable value.

I'm sorry to disagree, but life is too short and there are simply too many good deals to live somewhere you don't like while hoping to make an extra buck or two. Instead, find a house that will make you smile.

And finally, abandon your dream of buying only the ultimate real estate bargain of the century, and instead simply shoot for a reasonable value.

Trust me, the "half price" deals are snapped up by agents and professionals, most before they even hit the Multiple Listing Service. It is simply unrealistic to go home shopping with a goal of buying for 20 percent below market.

If a house is in reasonable condition, the market will determine a "fair market value" based on other houses in the area that have sold recently. In fact, you may have seen some of them when they were for sale.

This is why it's so important that you see a number of houses before you consider making your first offer. Each house you visit becomes part of your mental inventory, and you use that inventory to see how each house measures up to the others you have seen. It's called "comparison shopping."

I once worked with a couple who were transferring to the Atlanta area. He was a leading salesman with his firm and had been moved several times previously. The wife knew exactly what she wanted, and I showed them only homes that met their requirements. As we walked out the door of the first home we viewed, she said, "That's it; we want to buy this house."

I refused to allow them to make an offer until they had at least seen the remainder of the homes on our list for the day. That evening, she indicated she still wanted the first house, but now she wouldn't have to always wonder if it were truly the right house for them.

I recommend that no one make an offer to buy a house unless he or she has seen at least 10 houses in the area, preferably more.

Likewise, it is unrealistic to hope to see every possible home in a huge market like Atlanta. Metro Listing Service alone has more than 60,000 active listings just in the Atlanta area, and that doesn't cover homes being offered "by owner." Every day, homes are sold while others come on the market, making this a dynamic shopping experience.

So how is it possible to hope to approach the home shopping market wisely and still be able to honestly meet the three standards I have set forth?

I recommend using a real estate professional to assist in your search, and it's not just because I am a licensed broker.

An experienced real estate agent can help you focus your choices and view only homes that meet your needs, thus saving you from seeing everything available.

In addition, because the agent has done this many times before, he or she can assist you in finding all the other players who will make a contribution to your shopping experience.

Finally, an agent can help you get the best deal, and keep you out of trouble. By following the advice of your professional agent, you are assured of getting help when and where you need it.

Next week, let's look at each position on your home-shopping team and decide how to choose the players.

John Adams is a broker and investor. His Web site is www.money99.com.