Landlords are now commanding premium rents in an increasing number of popular neighborhoods. That makes it all the more difficult for long-time renters to save sufficient funds to afford the transition to homeownership.

Tom Early, a past president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (www.naeba.org), says rising rents mean tenants have little discretionary income left to save for a down payment or closing costs.

He says renters who have a child or two are especially strongly focused on homeownership, and because of such obstacles, some couples with kids try to pursue an interim step by attempting to move into another rental unit --ideally a detached house -- in a neighborhood with well-rated schools. But Early says rentals in such neighborhoods are exceptionally hard to find.

Although the barriers facing many first-time buyers are substantial, many who plan ahead and find a well-priced property can meet their goal.

Here are a few pointers for buyers:

-- Scout out the best neighborhood you can afford.

Many who've felt trapped in a rental unit for years get very excited when they first start shopping for a place to buy. But it's a mistake to let yourself fall in love with a particular house before you've scouted around to find the best one you can afford, says Michael S. Knight, a Chicago-area financial adviser affiliated with the Garrett Planning Network (www.garrettplanningnetwork.com).

"It's not uncommon for people to choose a neighborhood too quickly," says Knight, who recommends you compare several areas before making your pick.

To help with your due diligence, he says it's wise to sit down for an informal chat with an agent who specializes in the sale of real estate in each community on your short list.

Which neighborhoods are most likely to hold or gain value in the future? Ashley Richardson, an agent affiliated with the Council of Residential Specialists (www.crs.com), says access to high-quality public schools is one critical factor, along with nearby quality public transit.

"Millennial homebuyers -- those in their 20s and 30s -- don't want to ... spend a lot of their free time commuting long distances," Richardson says.

In addition, she says buyers of all ages want to live in an area where they can easily walk to shops and restaurants.

How can you quickly assess whether a neighborhood is pedestrian-friendly? One way is to visit a website that rates communities for their "walk scores." Just go to www.walkscore.com and type in the address of a house in the neighborhood.

-- Look for a good deal from sellers who are highly motivated.

The biggest wave of recession-era foreclosures has passed. But in every market, there are still sellers who must move and are anxious to do so. Richardson recommends that buyers searching for a good deal consider homes that have languished unsold for multiple months, usually because they were overpriced when they first hit the market.

It's not always easy to identify highly motivated sellers. But if a property is nearly vacant or there are no clothes in the closets, you can normally assume its owners have moved. You can also learn more by posing polite inquiries to neighbors living near the property.

"Stop by on a sunny Saturday or Sunday when you can chat with residents who are out in their yards. Tell them you admire their area and would like to know about for-sale properties there. If you're friendly, most people will try to help you," Richardson says.

-- Try to buy a house big enough to meet your needs for a lengthy period.

Before the last recession, many buyers were focused on "flipping," the practice of buying properties in hope they'd appreciate quickly and could then be sold for a profit.

But many who tried this game failed, teaching others a cautionary lesson about how tough it is to make speculation work.

"Forget about flipping, especially when it comes to buying a first home for your family. In any case, you wouldn't want your children changing schools too often," Early says.

-- Make sure you stay within reasonable limits when shaping an offer.

Once you've pinpointed a solid neighborhood and found a dream property there, you may be ready to make a bid. But Richardson says that before deciding how much to offer, you should obtain some facts and figures on recent sales in the area.

Ask your agent to give you statistics on homes that have sold recently -- the fresher the data, the better.

Are you seeking to buy your dream property in a popular area and know you'll face rival bidders? In that case, Richardson says you may wish to add a small monetary sweetener to help you outdo the others.

"You don't want to overshoot the value of the house by a huge amount. But you may wish to add perhaps $1,000 to $2,000 to your bid. If you truly love the place you've found, that's not a lot of money when spread over all the years you'll be living there," she says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

A machinist and his homemaker wife, both in their early 40s, had long been planning to sell their fully renovated Craftsman-style house to build a bigger, custom place on a rustic country lot. But they held off until autumn, waiting for perfect selling conditions in their area.

Their timing was just right.

Within a couple of days after their place went on the market, the couple bagged two offers, each for their full asking price, which gave them leverage when they made a counteroffer.

"Besides a good price, the sellers really wanted to remain in their house until the new place was totally move-in ready. Through good planning, they closed on their sale and now have the right to stay for up to 90 more days at a very nominal rent," says James "JJ" Godi, a real estate broker involved in the deal.

This story illustrates how sellers can often shape an offer to their liking, without pushing so hard as to alienate prospective buyers, says Fred Meyer, an appraiser and real estate broker who sells property near Harvard University.

Can all sellers act as demanding as the machinist and his wife?

"That depends on how much leverage they have in their market. The sellers' strategy has to be appropriate for market conditions," Meyer says.

Here are a few pointers:

-- Don't solicit advice on an offer from friends in your neighborhood.

Some sellers are inclined to ask neighbors to review a bid before deciding how to respond.

But Meyer cautions that most of your neighbors will probably lack the up-to-date information needed to guide you. What's more, they may be biased in their thinking and overestimate the value of the property.

Godi says a trustworthy real estate agent is typically your best source for sage counsel when you're attempting to ensure that a bid on your home is up to its true market value and that all the clauses in the document are acceptable.

"I go line-by-line through any offers my sellers receive," Godi says.

As he notes, each year so-called "standard" sales contracts become more complex and lengthy, as more mandatory disclosures are added. Yet often the most troublesome provisions involve nonstandard language.

"You have to be especially careful with handwritten clauses that are inserted in a sales contract by buyers or their agent," Godi says.

He advises those seeking a second opinion on a bid to have it reviewed by a lawyer who specializes in real estate.

"You don't want an attorney who does divorces or bankruptcies doing your real estate transactions. You need someone who really knows real estate law," Godi says.

However, he says you probably won't want your lawyer directly involved in negotiations with potential purchasers. The problem with that is that your buyers may think they also need an attorney, which can lead to an adversarial situation that might ruin your deal, he says.

-- Beware of special conditions attached to an offer.

In areas where demand for homes outstrips supply, Meyer says it's rare for potential buyers to risk making their offer conditional on finding a buyer for their own property.

But sometimes -- even in a hot seller's market --buyers may attempt to make an offer contingent on the closing of a pending deal for the sale of their current home. Even this provision can prove problematic, Meyer says.

Prior to signing such an offer, he recommends you ask your listing agent to obtain a copy of the contract for your buyers' deal to ensure that all the appraisal and home inspection issues have been resolved. Also, try to find out if firm financing is in place.

Remember that if your buyers' deal falls apart, the domino effect could topple your deal too.

-- Make doubly sure your buyers' financing plans are solid.

Accompanying any good contract offer for your home should be a letter stating that the would-be purchasers have been pre-approved for a mortgage. That means an established lender has not only checked their credit reports but has verified that they possess the wherewithal to purchase a place.

"What you need is proof that the buyers have the necessary income and assets," Godi says.

Nowadays, the terms "pre-approved" and "pre-qualified" are often used interchangeably. But, as Godi says, a pre-qualification letter "isn't worth the paper it's written on." That's because the borrowers have yet to give the lender the bank statements, W-2s and pay stubs needed to show they can afford your home.

Even a pre-approval letter is not a watertight guarantee that the lender will fund a mortgage for a particular set of buyers.

To protect his sellers, Godi routinely calls the lender who's signed a pre-approval letter to ask about the buyers' financial status.

If the lender gives vague or general answers to his questions, Godi says he goes a step further and requests actual copies of the buyers' documents, including tax returns.

"You've got to be sure any buyers who wish to purchase your place, including cash buyers, have all their financial ducks in a row. Otherwise, what seems like a wonderful deal could totally collapse," he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

After a long foreign-service career and early retirement, a couple in their late 50s decided to leave their sprawling 5,000-square-foot suburban home for a 3,500-square-foot place in a resort town an hour's drive away.

The couple envisioned the resort house, with its five bedrooms, as a mecca for their grown children and many grandkids. And indeed the offspring piled in -- all too often for the couple's taste. Exhausted by all the entertaining, five years later they moved again, this time to a 2,000-square-foot apartment with just one guest room.

As this true story illustrates, downsizing is a reality for many people in the second half of life. And a surprising number of retirees go through the process more than once, says Dorian Mintzer, a psychotherapist and author of "The Couple's Retirement Puzzle."

"Energy and priorities shift in retirement for a lot of people. Although many want to age in place in a big family house, others find it's more than they can handle in this phase of life," she says.

Mintzer says her downsizing clients include many older people with health issues that limit their housing options. Although they don't yet need assisted living, they hanker for a simpler life in a low-upkeep place free of stairs.

"Some people move because they have current or anticipated health problems," says Mintzer, whose retirement coaching practice is called Revolutionize Retirement (www.revolutionizeretirement.com).

Other retirees find it necessary to liquidate a big house to help underwrite living expenses.

"Given the high cost of college tuition for their kids and other factors, many boomers simply haven't been able to save enough for retirement. They have no choice but to cut living costs by moving to a smaller place," Mintzer says.

Although many seniors downsize out of necessity, others do so by choice. These are people with long-postponed passions they wish to fulfill. By simplifying on the home front, they hope to increase their time and energy for higher goals.

"Many older people want to streamline their lives before it's too late. And keeping up a big house doesn't make it on their bucket list," says Natalie Conrad, a professional organizer who specializes in downsizing.

Conrad, who heads a small firm called Organized Habits, has authored a workbook to help those who must purge accumulations and move to a smaller property. It's called "Organize to Downsize" and is available through her website (www.organizedhabits.com).

Regardless of the reason you're moving to a smaller place, the entire process can seem daunting. Here are a few tips to help keep it under control:

-- Focus more on features you want in a home than those you wish to leave behind.

As they contemplate an idyllic retirement setting, many people think primarily about the annoyances of living in their current property. For example, they may be running from the demands of a large yard or seeking to exit an area plagued with noisy traffic. But Conrad urges downsizers to concentrate more on features they're seeking than those they wish to avoid.

"Don't just think of retirement as retreat. Make sure you're much more proactive than that," she says.

-- Think twice before choosing an area with a strong homeowners' association.

Longtime life coach Lin Schreiber and her husband, a software specialist, thought they wanted to live in a new custom-home community surrounding a manmade lake. They bought their "dream house" there and assumed they'd stay for the rest of their lives.

But after just three years, they were so rattled by the rigid rules imposed by the strong neighborhood association that they sold the property and moved elsewhere.

Looking back on their experience, the couple wishes they'd investigated further before buying into the lakeside community, where Schreiber says neighborhood leaders proved bothersome and intrusive.

"Residents there were always arguing over minor matters related to the appearance and running of the community," she remembers.

Though she acknowledges that some people appreciate a strict neighborhood association, which can help protect property values, she says others find life in such a community too constricting.

-- Don't allow your children to make key housing choices for you.

Lots of retirees have grown offspring whom they both like and admire. But downsizers vary greatly in terms of the role they'd like their children to play in the next phase of their life.

"Some empty nesters feel a void in their lives and hope to see their children more often," she says.

Even so, Conrad cautions downsizers against giving their kids too much influence in the selection of retirement housing.

"Though their intentions are good, sometimes kids don't realize their parents' interests have changed since retiring. They only remember what their parents were like during their growing up years," she says.

-- Give yourself ample lead time before you have to move.

It's unusual for homeowners who've lived in a property for several decades to reach retirement without amassing a vast collection of material items, says Conrad, who conducts de-cluttering webinars and workshops for downsizers.

The issue is that to successfully sell a property and squeeze into a smaller space, nearly all downsizers must sift through possessions and make countless decisions on which to keep and which to let go.

"The real crux of the matter is mindset. Before you even put one thing in a box, you must be confident you know where you're going. At that point you shouldn't still be second guessing yourself on where to move," she says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)