I work as an appellate public defender, which is fulfilling work but not so financially rewarding. :-) My goal is to buy my first property in either of these two markets.

Here is a little something that is really starting to get under my skin... It seems that everyone in the real estate community across the nation (I've been licensed now in 4 states) has SOMETHING to say about an agent...

If you want even close to that kind of security in what you are doing some attorneys will give a legal opinion letter but you will pay a lot for them to give one and defend it. 

Judgements or the costs of defending a lawsuit?

The only way I can think to defend against this type of thing is to be involved in the material purchase or to make use of a completion bond.  

On the upside, you likely have a slam dunk small claims lawsuit and the defendants have assets.

The guy I am working with now explained it well and think you might appreciate this, can an attorney represent both the plaintiff and the defendant?

PM sounds like a jerk.. and your stuck defending someone you hired to do the best job possible for you.. they dropped the ball and you need to further monitor what they are up do and doing by physically taking action and checking what's up.  

I know I'm over simplifying, it doesn't seem that hard I would imagine @Jay Hinrichs saying "Questionable ethnics is like ice in your drink at a burger flipper, the higher the volume the more ice they put in your soda, and will use words like *cooling optimization* to defend the scant amount of soda in MY DRINK!" 

My agent was happy to make the offer, defend the price, and we'll see where it ends up.So that's one version...the other version is...There's a subdivision of 100 similar homes with an average sales price of $200K and then I go in and low-ball $100K on every single home that comes up for sale.