(MONEY Magazine) – With for sale signs seemingly becoming permanent fixtures on more lawns across the country, the balance of power has clearly shifted from home sellers to buyers. As a result, shelter seekers in the buyers' markets of the '90s should be as finicky as Morris the cat. In today's slower-moving markets from Philadelphia to Phoenix, buyers have the luxury of time and more houses to choose from than at any time since 1982. Says Amy Twill, regional sales manager of Prudential/Connecticut Realty in Hartford: ''The whole atmosphere is more conducive to getting a better deal.'' If anything, that's an understatement. These days, you can hold out for the house that precisely suits your taste and needs. Of course, as long as fantasies outstrip incomes, no one can get absolutely everything he's ever dreamed of in one house. There just aren't enough $50,000 waterfront mansions 10 minutes from work to go around. So before beginning any house hunting, even in a sluggish market, you need to decide which features you absolutely must have and which you could compromise on. (Price considerations are a separate matter, as ''Locking In the Best Price and Financing'' on page 46 explains.) A thorough investigation of the housing market you're considering will help you focus your search. That's exactly how the McClary family -- Bob, a 60- year-old investigator in the county prosecutor's office, his wife Pat, 42, a marketing manager for the Detroit Zoological Park, and their 20-month-old baby, Catherine Ann -- capitalized on Detroit's doughboy-soft market last year. The couple diligently scoured various neighborhoods in the city, including Green Acres on the west side and Rosedale Park in northwest Detroit, looking for an area where house values were climbing, homes and yards were well maintained and there was a tight-knit sense of community. They also kept a mental list of features they required in a home -- lots of storage space, a family room and, most important, a bathroom on the ground floor. ''With a baby,'' says Pat, ''you need a place to attend to certain emergencies immediately.'' After looking at an astonishing 150 houses over 12 months, the couple finally saw one that was just right -- a three-bedroom Tudor in the middle-class Warren-Cadieux section on Detroit's east side. They grabbed it for $64,000 -- $6,000 less than the asking price. ''All our work really paid off,'' says Pat. ''This house has everything we want, including a first-floor bath, and it's worth every dime.'' Not everyone has to conduct a house hunt with the precision of a Marine drill team. Still, you would do well to emulate the McClarys by mapping out a strategy. Get some professional assistance from a knowledgeable real estate agent. This will save time, since brokers can subscribe to a publication or computer data base known as the multiple listing service; it will have descriptions of all the homes listed in the style and price range you desire. You will find fewer for sale by owner ads in today's buyers' markets, anyway; even the most independent-minded sellers recognize the need for professional help when the market stalls. (As the table opposite shows, a few cities, such as Chicago, Pittsburgh and Sacramento are now sellers' markets where buyers are bidding up prices.) But with brokers desperate to sell homes today, there's no reason to tolerate one who takes your quest any less seriously than you do. Your broker should, for example, be willing to traipse through as many houses as you want; it's reasonable to look at 10 to 20 listings in one community. Ideally, the broker should also clue you in to upcoming house auctions (for auction- shopping advice, see the box on page 34). Never forget, though, that when you're ready to make an offer, your broker's allegiance will be to the seller -- the person who will be paying him or her the commission out of the sale proceeds.

-- CHOOSING THE AREA Before scuffling through a single house, select a few neighborhoods or communities in which to concentrate your search. More than any other factor, the area itself will determine your quality of life and your house's investment potential. Even in Houston, where housing values fell as much as 32% from the 1983 market peak, home prices slipped only half as much in top neighborhoods like Tanglewood -- and are now rebounding more sharply there. Last year, prices in Tanglewood jumped 30%, compared with 11% in Houston overall. Maximize the investment potential of your house by singling out places where housing values are likely to meet or exceed inflation's pace. To identify them, ask a local planning board or economic development office for the area's current employment growth rate. If it is 3% a year or more, a steady stream of buyers should keep house-price gains above average. The areas you shop should also feature the qualities that buyers value most. You can scope out such traits just by driving around: entertainment outlets and access to public transportation and major highways, for example. Others require a little gumshoe work. For instance, to see whether the community has a low crime rate, stop by the police department and find out the level of burglaries and violent crimes in the past year compared with other nearby communities of the same size. A topflight school system is also a strong selling point and certainly a major factor if you have school-age children or soon will. A survey of 4,028 parents by SchoolMatch, a Columbus, Ohio company that analyzes more than 30,000 U.S. public school systems and private schools, shows that parents prefer schools with classes of 25 students or fewer and per-pupil spending on books, instructional materials and teachers' salaries that at the very least matches the U.S. average of $4,221. The best systems spend 50% more. Surprisingly, most parents do not demand the schools with the highest elementary or high school achievement test scores in the area. Instead, they prefer ones whose students perform at average to above-average levels. William Bainbridge, president of SchoolMatch, says parents would rather have their ( child be a star at a good school than a mediocre pupil at a superior one. You can get essential education data for public schools from the state board of education; for private-school information, ask the school's admissions director or headmaster. Get an independent assessment too; for $49, SchoolMatch (800-992-5323; 5027 Pine Creek Dr., Westerville, Ohio 43081) will evaluate a specific public school system or private school against others in neighboring areas or anywhere in the U.S. Don't judge schools purely by the numbers, though. Meet with principals, and tour facilities. Be sure to ask whether the neighborhood school has the capacity to enroll your child. In some fast-growing areas, local schools are filled to capacity and new kids get bused elsewhere. For example, in Los Angeles, an influx of 15,000 new students last year into the city's already overcrowded largest school district has meant that 24,000 pupils must now be bused to L.A. schools as much as 45 minutes away. The planning board can fill you in on local issues like land use, business migration and area environmental hazards -- all of which help set house-price trends. By finding out where future business growth will be located, for instance, and then looking for a home in the vicinity, you can ''buy in at today's lower prices and sell tomorrow after prices have escalated,'' advises Peter G. Miller, author of Buy Your First Home Now (Harper & Row, $17.95). Just be certain that the locality has a master plan that prevents commercial and industrial development from overwhelming residential areas. Lax zoning regulations can turn a once tidy neighborhood into a cruddy one in a trice. Press for information about recent developments that could erode home values, such as major employers fleeing the area and taking enough jobs with them to hurt the local economy. Tulsa, for example, lost 28,000 jobs in the early '80s as a result of the oil price collapse, and its housing market has yet to recover. At $75,223, the average house price last year was 4.4% below its 1984 level. New unpopular businesses -- a huge mall down the street that might cause traffic congestion, for example -- can also dampen housing appreciation. So can environmental dangers such as hazardous-waste dumps or high radon levels (see ''Buying the Healthy House'' on page 36). Sunbelt shoppers especially should ask their agents about the prospective impact on local home values of the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) -- the federal agency charged with selling off properties once owned by failed thrifts. In hard-hit areas like Austin, RTC-owned houses and condos make up a stunning 11% of brokers' inventory. Congress has told the RTC not to unload such properties for less than 90% to 95% of their appraised value. But real estate analysts such as Robert Emrich, vice president of the Greenman Group, a Hollywood, Fla. consulting firm, worry that appraisals might have to be lowered to sell these houses. If that happens, people who bought earlier might see their homes drop in value. Beware of areas where the RTC might unload acres of raw land for below-market prices too. Such sales could enable builders to erect new, inexpensive homes and undercut appreciation on existing residences. Commuting time will also play a major role in dictating where you live. Let your tolerance for traffic -- or lack of it -- be your guide. If you're a confirmed Type A who needs beta blockers to get through the daily rush hour, you'll live better and longer in a house or condo near work. But if you think of highway driving or a commuter train trip as a chance to mull over business ideas -- or take a Walkman break -- you may be a candidate for an hour-or- longer commute to a big house and yard in the boonies. To gauge commuting time accurately, don't rely on the broker's estimate. ''Make the commute yourself,'' says Liz Merrill, a broker in Burlington, Vt. ''And do it during peak rush hour -- not in midday when traffic tends to be lighter.'' Since property taxes in many places can easily run $200 a month on a $150,000 house, you should compare tax bills on homes that interest you with others in the area. Remember, you're not interested in what the current owner is paying but what you will owe once you move in. To find out how to calculate what your taxes would be, call local assessors. This nugget is especially important to know these days when cash-strapped legislatures and municipalities are raising property taxes faster than you can say Howard Jarvis.

-- CHOOSING THE HOME Once you've winnowed your choices down to a few neighborhoods, start house hunting. Keep in mind that for resale potential, detached single-family houses on lots of one-quarter to one-half acre are hands-down favorites for most buyers. In a 1989 Builder magazine survey of 2,025 new-home shoppers nationwide that included singles, couples and couples with children, at least two-thirds of the buyers in each group preferred a detached house to a townhouse or condominium. An attached house doesn't necessarily doom you to meager appreciation, though. Some markets are now so expensive that shoppers must bend their preferences to their budgets. In parts of Southern California, for example, detached single-family home prices have climbed so high -- often $350,000 or more -- that even a trade-up buyer armed with cash from the sale of a smaller home can rarely afford them. As a result, builders have come up with a new type of housing: attached move-ups. These are basically large townhouses with grand and glitzy kitchens and baths costing $150,000 to $300,000. Yet that is still 15% to 20% less than detached homes of comparable size and quality. Think about how much time, energy and money you'll want to commit to home maintenance and repairs. If you don't keep your home in superior condition, it could be a tough sell when you're ready to move out. Houses built before the 1950s may have more character than freshly built ones, but they require greater care too; houses more than seven years old often cost $1,500 or so a year to maintain, vs. a few hundred dollars for younger ones. If you want the joys of home ownership without much of the drudgery -- and are willing to forgo some privacy and potential appreciation -- consider a condo or a home in a cluster development, where the condominium or homeowners association maintains the exterior of your house and the common grounds for around $100 a month. Or concentrate on developments still under construction. Don't be taken in by a shiny veneer, however. To check the quality of the builder's materials and workmanship, interview people who bought homes from him within the past year. Also, call the local Better Business Bureau and see whether any complaints have been filed against the builder. You might want to find a builder whose homes come with an insured warranty at no additional fee to you. This policy will cover losses due to faulty electrical, plumbing and heating and cooling systems within two years and major structural defects within 10 years. As for style, you will appeal to the largest number of potential buyers when you eventually sell if you stick with houses that are more ordinary than daring. That means, for example, passing up a $500,000 house in a $200,000 neighborhood. A 2,000-square-foot, four-bedroom house with virtually no backyard might also be a tough sell someday since the typical buyers for such a home -- families with children -- usually want a large lot. You should be especially chary of falling for custom-built homes with avant-garde architecture, because potential buyers who share your preferences may ultimately be harder to find. Take care to choose a house whose architectural style adds to its value. Increased mobility has widened the range of acceptable styles -- good ol' boys in Houston are now buying that old Texas standby, the English Tudor -- but regional preferences can still run strong. In New England, for example, ranch- style houses are as popular as Ceausescu posters in Bucharest and thus could become a tough sell for you someday. It's important, of course, to be certain that a home's layout fits the way you really live. Families with small children, for example, often prefer a kitchen that opens onto the family room, so Mom or Mr. Mom can keep an eye on the kids while preparing meals. Parents should also be mindful of traffic patterns within the house. No, not special lanes for little Mikey's Big Wheel, but the route you must take to get from room to room. Ideally, in a household with young kids, the family room should be well clear of the formal dining room where you will entertain adult friends. Parents of teenagers often prefer that the master bedroom be placed as far away from their kids as possible -- preferably on the opposite side of the house -- to save them from 40- decibel renditions of such tunes as Guns 'n' Roses' raucous hit Welcome to the Jungle. You may also need a room that's not found in every home. For instance, a household with a grandparent or a boomerang child -- one who moves back in after college, a divorce or job layoff -- may prefer a house with an accessory apartment and a separate entrance. Dual-career couples may find a home office to be indispensable. Finally, with so many places to choose from, don't be afraid to let comfort help you select a home. Why settle for spartan amenities when you can find sumptuous splendor? Go ahead, live it up. Luxe features like French doors, clerestory windows and cathedral ceilings will make your house brighter and more livable, and will probably add value. The same goes for large kitchens with top-quality cabinets and walk-in pantries. Ditto spacious bathrooms with dual lavatories, oversize tubs and separate showers. Feathering your nest in the '90s will not only make your time at home more enjoyable, but it should make it easier to find an eventual buyer when you're ready to fly.