The question on everyone´s mind is, "Has the market bottomed out?" People want to know if now is the time to buy a home or if they should wait for further declines in home values.

Many have heard the old adages, "Buy low and sell high." and "Buy when everyone else is selling and sell when everyone else is buying." It´s easy to forget this timeless advice, though, when every day there is another expert hyping the decline of the housing market.

Remember: No one was able to predict the peak and no one can predict the bottom.

Stop waiting for the media to predict the bottom of the market. By the time they do, it will be too late for the average person to take advantage of the situation.

A sound and easy real estate investing strategy is to sell before the peak and buy before the bottom. This is easy to understand but harder to apply because the tendency is to get greedy. The desire to sell at the absolute peak and buy at the very bottom distracts most investors. Unfortunately, most people end up selling for much lower than the peak and buying much higher than the bottom.

So what happens if you buy now? You´ll take advantage of low interest rates and a lot of inventory, and since there is little competition, you will probably be able to negotiate a great bargain.

What if the market goes lower? Chances are it won´t, but even if it does, it probably won´t go significantly lower. The bigger risk is in the market improving. Buyers who are sitting on the sidelines will jump in, and the increase in competition will mean less opportunity to negotiate a great deal.

This is the best home buying opportunity of the past several years. Don´t get caught missing out. Take the deal!

Lyle Martin is a real estate veteran with more than 30 years of experience. In 1987, he and his business partner Mary LaMeres-Pomin left the "traditional" world of real estate to start Assist-2-Sell®, a full-service discount real estate company based in Reno, Nev. Today, Assist-2-Sell has more than 550 franchise offices throughout the United States and Canada. Lyle continues to serve as co-chief executive officer of Assist-2-Sell Inc. Thanks to Assist-2-Sell´s "Full-Service with $avings!"® marketing program, home sellers have saved more than $800 million in real estate commissions.* Entrepreneur Magazine has recognized Assist-2-Sell as a leading franchise and the Wall Street Journal´s StartupJournal named Assist-2-Sell one of its 25 "Franchise Top Performers." Lyle has also been named one of the "100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders" by Inman News.

*Savings based on statistics since January 1, 2000, for all Assist-2-Sell® offices in North America, compared to paying six percent commission. Six percent used for comparison purposes only. Commissions may be negotiable and are not fixed by law.