"Once you as a potential buyer found a house that met your needs, you had to jump on it right away," said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for Freddie Mac. "One thing that we're seeing nowadays -- compared to six or 12 months ago -- is many markets where homes are staying on the market longer."

It's a change of pace for agents who not long ago didn't have many properties to show their clients, said David Drinkwater, a Realtor in Scituate, Mass., and regional vice president for the National Association of Realtors.

In fact, getting a fair deal is even more of a priority for homeowners who can no longer bank on high appreciation rates to save them if they pay too much, Drinkwater said. If you slightly overpaid in a bidding war at the height of the real estate boom, high appreciation rates helped correct the error, he said. In many markets, no such safety net exists anymore.