"Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." -- Miranda warning given by police to criminal suspects

Sellers talk too much. And when they do, they often talk themselves out of a lot of money. So, sellers: Keep your mouth shut and allow your agent to serve as your mouthpiece.

It's not that you are trying to hide something from would-be buyers. With today's disclosure laws, everything materially wrong with a home is going to be revealed to the other side, anyway. If it's not, you're asking for trouble.

At the same time, though, if you ramble on with a prospect or even his agent, chances are you will give up some information that the other side can use to gain a negotiating advantage.

Say you are about to close on your new house and need the money from the old one. Or your daughter is about to have a baby and you want to be out before the blessed event. Or maybe you are flexible on your price.

Make any of those things known in what you think of as passing conversation, and you've just reduced your chances that a buyer will come in with a strong offer.

"It's amazing how much of a disadvantage sellers can put themselves in," said Christine Donovan of the Donovan Group in Costa Mesa, Calif., on the real estate website ActiveRain.

The topic comes up often in the ActiveRain chat rooms, and the gist is usually that agents MUST read their sellers their real estate Miranda rights, sometimes prior to every showing.

Most agents working with buyers love it when sellers strike up a conversation with their clients. Pretty soon, they establish a bond -- maybe they went to the same college, or they have the same number of children. And then, before you know it, the seller wants the "nice young couple" to have the house.

That's when the classified information dam breaks. The seller will disclose the lowest price they're willing to take, or that they are getting a divorce and have to move right away. Often, everything and anything a buyer can use to his advantage in determining what he wants to offer can come spilling out.

Some sellers don't stop there. They also might divulge that they hate the neighborhood or the schools, or that the local kids are annoying. If that's the case, what makes anyone think someone else would want to live there?

The message should be clear: Take a vow of silence, even with other real estate agents. After all, speaking with them is just like speaking to the buyer. "Being silent is the best negotiation skill one can have," Mike Yeo of 3:16 Team Realty in Frisco, Texas, advised in one ActiveRain discussion. "Just shut up!"

Some buyers' agents are slick. They try to engage the seller in innocent conversation. It might seem like idle chatter, but the good ones have ways to get information out of sellers -- information that only the seller's agent should have.

This is why agents recommend that sellers leave the home when it is being shown. That way, there's no chance of something slipping out that shouldn't. If you can't leave, gather the family in front of the TV and don't move. Acknowledge the visitors' presence, but otherwise be quiet.

Besides the possibility of showing your hand, Jennifer Fivelsdal of JFIVE Realty in Rhinebeck, N.Y., commented recently, any interaction makes it hard for the buyer to focus on the home's features -- making you less likely to get an offer.

Buyers frequently run at the mouth, too, and the information they spill -- like how high they can go -- is just as damaging to their cause. "A $10 muzzle would have saved them $15,000," commented Doug Rogers of Century 21 Millennium in Pineville, La., of past clients.

"I have to admit: As a listing agent, I've been on the receiving end of buyers talking too much," said Mel Peterson of the Real Estate Cafe in Grants Pass, Ore. "It was quite helpful when we went into a counter situation and I was able to share with my sellers how badly the buyers wanted their home."

So buyers, too, should take a vow of silence. "Buyers are meant to be seen, not heard, especially when viewing a house," said Gary Waters of Century 21 Baytree Realty in Rockledge, Fla. "They need to share between themselves and their agent, not the seller's agent."

If buyers and sellers must speak to one another, they should try not to show any emotion. And keep your comments -- good or bad -- to yourself. Only when buyers leave the property should the discussions begin about what they liked and disliked about the place.

"I always say to keep your cards as close to your chest as possible," said Yvonne Burdette of Rhoads Real Estate in Springfield, Mo. "Every word is a commodity you should not give, sell or trade."

Did you hear about the loan underwriter who demanded a letter from the borrower's doctor stating the borrower had been healed and his illness would not come back? How about the underwriter who wanted a verification of employment from the borrower who listed her occupation as "homemaker"?

Yes, things are tough out there. And despite some evidence that lenders are easing up just a tad, in the new world of "prove everything -- and prove it twice," there have been some unusual demands, to say the least.

For example, lenders like to determine the source of funds that are deposited into applicants' accounts. They want to make sure that money for a down payment is the applicant's, as opposed to loan from a friend, relative or other lending institution.

That makes sense. After all, if it's not the borrower's money, he has no skin in the game. And it becomes too easy for him to walk away from the mortgage later if he should not be able to pay as promised. Or he might not be able to afford to pay back two loans, one from the bank and the other from some unknown entity.

But in one case, the underwriter -- the person who is responsible for reviewing all documentation for your loan to make sure it conforms to the lender's requirements -- asked for a letter of explanation on a $6 deposit from a borrower who earned $10,000 a month. And in another instance, a borrower who had deposited $235 from a garage sale was asked for an ad proving she did, indeed, have the sale.

Yes, despite the need to know, some requests are just plain ridiculous.

"Absurd," says Karen Deis, who operates MortgageCurrentcy.com, a website that keeps loan officers, processors and underwriters current on the ever-changing regulations and guidelines for FHA loans, VA loans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"I don't know whether to laugh or cry," says Deis. She collected these and dozens of other anecdotes on her Facebook page after asking her clients to report the most absurd conditions they have seen. "People are scared. All you hear about are buybacks, audits and people losing their jobs" because they didn't verify this or confirm that.

These silly requests notwithstanding, Ellie Mae, the electronic mortgage processing system, reports that the average FICO scores of closed loans fell slightly in March, for the second month in a row -- from 745 to 743. That's the lowest since Ellie Mae began tracking loan profiles.

But according to FICO, the company that builds the algorithms on which the all-important credit scores are based, only 37 percent of all people with credit records have a FICO score above 750. That doesn't mean the other 60-plus percent didn't have a score high enough to obtain a mortgage. Rather, as Ellie Mae president Jonathan Corr explains, his company's benchmark is an average, so people with lower scores are obtaining financing. But they have to jump through hoops to do so.

"Even though there has been some loosening," Corr says, "what they're asking of people is not changing. It's still pretty comprehensive, and we're going to continue to hear stories like this."

With that in mind, then, would-be borrowers should be ready for anything, as these other unusual underwriting requests collected by Deis demonstrate:

-- A borrower who had been out of school for several years was asked to produce his high school transcript.

-- The underwriter asked for proof that the borrower was no longer under house arrest.

-- The underwriter wanted a letter explaining why the year-old child listed on the application was not named as a dependent on the previous year's tax return. Then, when the borrower wrote back that the child was not born until after the tax return was filed, the underwriter wanted a copy of the infant's birth certificate.

-- A borrower was asked for a death certificate for her recently deceased husband PLUS a letter explaining why her social security benefits had been reduced.

-- The borrower, a teacher at a Catholic high school, was asked for a letter testifying the school was part of the local Catholic school system.

-- A single father who had custody of his child was asked for a letter saying he did not have to pay child support.

-- The underwriter wanted verification that the borrower, who had written a $167 check to a local grocery store, did not have a loan with the grocer.

-- An updated appraisal was requested because the picture accompanying the original one was deemed too old. It must be old, the underwriter reasoned, because the evergreen trees in the background were still green and it was the middle of winter.

-- The underwriter demanded a letter from a borrower explaining why she changed her name after she married.

-- A borrower was asked for proof that he does not own a home he sold a decade earlier.

-- The underwriter wanted a letter from the U.S. Postal Service verifying that the borrower, whose mailing address was a post office box, actually owned the 10-inch box and that it was the borrower's primary address.

-- A borrower who worked for a well-known major company was asked for a letter explaining why his office was in a different location than the headquarters address listed on his pay stub.

-- A borrower who listed her occupation as "prostitute" and declared her income on her tax returns was required to obtain affidavits from her regular customers saying they were, indeed, her clients.

April 20-21 is Nationwide Open House weekend -- not exactly a national holiday, but rather an event contrived by the National Association of Realtors in which members far and wide are holding open houses on behalf of sellers.

But is the open house a sound sales tactic?

The numbers seem to indicate so. In 2012, nearly half of all buyers used an open house as a source in their search for a new residence, according to the NAR's latest "Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers."

But visiting an open house on a Saturday or Sunday doesn't always equate with buying. Which again begs the question: Is an open house worth the trouble?

Unfortunately, the jury is not just out on that one, it's hung. While many agents sing the praises of open houses, just as many, if not more, maintain they are an exercise in futility.

Almost every agent worth his or her salt has sold houses to people who have strolled in off the street to visit the property. But that's the exception, not the rule. Indeed, according to the NAR's buyer-seller profile, only one in every 10 buyers found the house they eventually purchased by going to open houses.

Still, there are several good reasons for agents to hold an open house. One is to get to know the seller better; another is to get to know the house. A third is to obtain some important feedback on the home's strengths and weaknesses through the eyes of potential buyers.

After all, agents have found that by having visitors point out things they don't like about the place, it is easier to persuade sellers to dig into their pocketbooks to repair, repaint or even upgrade.

But as a sales tool? Not so much.

You are better off simply sticking a for-sale sign in your front yard. About 53 percent of all buyers use yard signs to search for their next home as opposed to the 45 percent who attend open houses, according to NAR's study.

Nevertheless, most sellers view an open house as necessary and think they are being shortchanged if their agents skip what has become a real estate ritual. If your agent does agree to host one, it is far more likely that he or she will use the event to meet inquisitive neighbors, ask for referrals, or perhaps even lasso a few would-be buyers who have yet to align themselves with a real estate professional.

This year, though, your agent is just as likely to use Nationwide Open House weekend to promote realtor doctrine as to promote your property -- or even himself. According to a list of media talking points posted for NAR members about the event, agents are encouraged to engage consumers regarding the benefits of ownership.

"We need to make sure any changes to current (government) programs or incentives don't jeopardize a housing and economic recovery," is one such suggested talking point. "We need to ensure public policies that promote responsible, sustainable home ownership," reads another. And making certain "our country's leaders ... understand the vital role that real estate plays" in America's health is a third.

A more effective way to use an open house, at least to your advantage as opposed to that of your agent or the real estate business, is to invite a caravan of agents to see your place when it is first put on the market. That way, agents far and wide can preview your house on behalf of their clients, and if it happens to be what one or more are looking for, the agent can bring the client back for a private showing.

So, if open houses don't sell houses, what does? Why the Internet, of course.

Typical buyers these days -- nine out of 10, in fact -- first troll the Web to find houses they think are worth visiting.

As a result of their Internet searches, 76 percent of all buyers told NAR researchers that they actually jumped in their cars and drove by the places they liked. Some 62 percent walked through the homes they first saw online, and a whopping 42 percent say they ended up buying a place they first saw while cruising the Web.

Some agents say they get a good bang for their buck with weekly home magazines or weekend television shows. You know, the ones that feature a few shots of houses for sale, a brief description of each, and the listing agents' names and phone numbers.

But truth be told, like open houses, their primary benefit is to keep the agent's name in front of the public and generate leads from potential purchasers who, studies show, eventually buy a house -- just not the one they originally inquired about.

But getting back to open houses. Here are a few more stats from the NAR to keep in mind:

-- Repeat buyers are more likely to find a house from an open house than first-timers. So if yours is a modest house ideal for first-time owners, you might want to skip an open house and try something else.

-- Mid-income buyers, those with incomes between $55,000 and $75,000, are the most likely to find their homes though an open house when compared with other income brackets.

-- Older buyers, age 65 and over, are more likely to find their homes though an open house than any other age group. The younger the buyer, the less likely he or she will use an open house as a search tool. In fact, just slightly more than one in four buyers under the age of 24 will attend an open house.