In most states the agent is only allowed to represent (i.e., "work for") one party in a transaction, although they are allowed to provide assistance to the unrepresented party.Personally I wouldn't be too concerned about the agent repping the seller, at least that way the seller will pay the agent's commission and you, as the unrepresented buyer, do not have to.

The problems that come up during our everyday business dealings may seem routine to us but could represent a major pitfall for someone who is not used to dealing with them.

New home sales (which represents roughly 10% of the overall housing market) rose 1.6% for December and closed out a very strong year for this segment of our housing market.

People are skeptical of an agent that will represent them and have duty to them, but not about the listing agent??

If you do not have a realtor representing you I think you should have one with experience to carry out this process.

I am representing a buyer on a short sale transaction and the negotiator wants to know how much my buyer is willing to pay, to pay off some of the liens.

Adam is correct that an Independent Agent (representing multiple markets) would be your best option. 

I would bear in mind whether there are any single major employers and/or industries that represent a large portion of the employment.

However, in multiple recent experiences in my operations working as an active real estate agent, I’ve represented several customers working to sell their homes who have ended up not quite as lucky.While I am not an attorney and am not qualified to give legal advice, I can certainly disclose some of the knowledge I have gained from these recent transactions which end up in binder disputes.

Seller was represented by an attorney and I represented myself.