If you are an active buyer or seller planning to travel over the holidays -- or anytime, for that matter -- make sure your agent can still reach you. If you can’t be found, you could lose your deal.

Just ask Andrea Bedard, an agent in Silver Spring, Maryland. She couldn’t get in touch with a seller while he was traveling, and he failed to initial a key contract clause within the allotted time frame.

“Thankfully, the buyer wanted the house, and was understanding,” she says. But folks “can’t take this kind of a response for granted,” Bedard posted on ActiveRain recently.

Indeed, an offer can easily disappear if a seller isn’t around to accept or counter it. If you are totally out-of-pocket for days at a time, your wannabe buyer might just move on.

And if you’re a buyer who can’t be located, another buyer can swoop in and take the house right out from under you. “Time,” says agent Amanda Davidson in Alexandria, Virginia, “opens the opportunity for another buyer to tour the home and write an offer.”

Agent Dorie Dillard in Austin, Texas, agrees. “Time is of the essence,” she says. “Until all the initials and documents are obtained and the contract is dated, you don’t have a binding contract.”

So let your agent know how to get in touch -- and your lender, too. Gene Mundt, a loan broker in New Lenox, Illinois, says many applicants seem to go MIA these days during the approval process. Whether for business, pleasure or even illness, he says, taking yourself out of action “can definitely put a kink in the mortgage process.”

Beverly Goldberg, the domineering mother on the popular sitcom “The Goldbergs,” would be pleased with recent research from ApartmentList. It found that 26-year-olds are now more likely to be living with their parents than with spouses.

Fifty years ago, 3 out of every 4 26-year-olds resided with their spouses. Now, that share has plummeted to just 1 in 4. So rejoice, Beverly, and all mothers like her.

On the other hand: Moms may not like it, but ApartmentList also found that, compared with data from 2007, today’s young adults are 32% more likely to live with a partner before tying the knot.

The big keep getting bigger.

According to the trade journal BUILDER, the nation’s 20 largest builders constructed 29 percent of all new houses in 2018. That’s up significantly from 26.8 percent the year before.

Twenty years ago, these national and regional giants produced just 16.6% of all the new houses.

These behemoths, which are able to leverage their size to access credit directly from Wall Street and achieve economies of scale in purchasing building materials, have been growing by moving into smaller markets, often by buying their smaller-scale competitors and their land. Last month, for example, Taylor Morrison Home Corp. agreed to buy William Lyon Homes, making the resulting entity the fifth-largest homebuilder in the land.

There’s no question a foreclosure can be devastating. But it doesn’t stay on your credit record forever, and it doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to own a home again.

Credit scores can decline by 150 points or more when a lender forecloses, according to an analysis by LendingTree. But the event falls away after seven years, and many buyers maintain a relatively high score regardless of their housing woes.

More than 30% of those with a foreclosure in their files have a score of 640 or better within a year of foreclosure, LendingTree found. That’s more than enough to qualify for a mortgage. Moreover, credit scores tend to increase by about 10 points each year after foreclosure.

Time and again, this column has addressed the importance of down payment assistance (DPA), which is accepted in one form or another by most lenders. Now comes a survey that finds 9 out of 10 homebuyers who used the help would not have been able to purchase their homes without it.

The poll by the CBC Mortgage Agency in Cedar City, Utah, found that for many single-parent buyers, acquiring a home would have been impossible without assistance.

“The findings are compelling,” said CBC President Richard Ferguson. “Without DPA, millions of Americans would be shut out of the homebuying market.”

According to Down Payment Resource, an information clearinghouse, there are more than 2,500 active DPA programs nationally. They are offered through state and local housing finance agencies like CBC, nonprofits, city and county administrators and even some employers.

Most programs take one of several forms: grants that need not be paid back; low- or no-cost second mortgages; affordable first mortgages; and mortgage credit certificates, which provide tax benefits to help offset mortgage interest costs. Sometimes assistance programs can be combined or used in conjunction with low-down-payment, high-debt-to-income ratio loans.

Zumper, an apartment search engine, says its latest survey found that 1 in 3 apartment-dwellers do not believe the American Dream involves homeownership, and 1 in 5 say they never want to buy a house.

Furthermore, the percentage of respondents who plan to take the plunge within the next two years has declined from 44% last year to 30% this year.

Some homebuyers are about to catch a break, courtesy of the Federal Reserve Board and other banking regulators.

As long as the price tag on their new homes is below $400,000, these lucky purchasers will no longer have to pay for a mandatory appraisal. But the other side of the coin isn’t as positive: How will buyers know if they’ve overpaid?

After all, if the appraisal comes in below the agreed-upon price, you can back out of the deal or ask the seller to lower the price. But without an appraisal, you’ll never know whether you paid too much -- or, on the other hand, whether you nailed the deal of a lifetime.

In raising the appraisal threshold, the Fed, acting in concert with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, notes that the ceiling hasn’t risen since 1994, though the price of real estate certainly has.

“Given price appreciation in residential real estate transactions ... the change will provide regulatory burden relief without posing a threat to the safety and soundness of financial institutions,” the central bank said in the Federal Register.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has also signed off on the higher limit, which takes full effect on Jan. 1, citing the savings to the homebuyer of not having to pay for the appraisal.

The federal watchdog agency also noted the tendency of financial institutions to order appraisals, even in cases when they are not obligated to. This, too, tends to decrease the risk to the nation’s financial system that the change in the limit may have.

Some appraisers agree with the CFPB’s assessment. “We don’t even know what the impact will be. Most banks still want an appraisal, and I don’t think that’s going to change,” says Thomas Hoff, vice president of marketing and communications at Pro Teck Valuation Services, a Massachusetts appraisal company. “I don’t know of any banks that have changed their policies.”

Hoff’s colleague at Pro Teck, Chief Compliance Officer Jeff Dickstein, agrees. “In my conversations with our lender clients, most have not changed their rules,” he says. “And we see no movement to change, at least not anytime in the near future.

Dickstein points out that lenders have just as keen an interest in the value of the house as their borrowers do. “There’s still risk associated with every single loan, and the house is the collateral for that loan,” he says. “So lenders still need to validate the collateral.”

Federal regulators weren’t thinking only about consumers when they proposed the change of rules. The industry has also been experiencing a shortage of appraisers, especially in rural areas, making a lighter load welcome.

How much will an appraisal set you back? Figure around $400 to $600, though it varies based on location and other factors. Hoff said he recently saw a $1,500 charge for an appraisal on a $1.5 million house in Los Angeles.

Lenders have a number of options they can use to estimate a property’s worth. Besides a hands-on, personal appraisal, they can opt for an automated valuation model, a desktop appraisal or an electronic valuation. But in some states, even if lenders use an AVM or e-valuation, they still have to engage an appraiser.

In addition, the quoted price may not be what you wind up paying. Lenders quote a price to consumers, but the law allows them to raise it if circumstances change. Houses in rural areas can often present appraisal challenges, for instance.

Potentially, the new exemption limit could have a big effect. The FDIC looked at 2017 real estate transactions, the latest for which data was available, and estimated 214,000 more would have been exempted under the higher limit. That’s about 16 percent of the more than 1.5 million deals that year.

And since 56 percent of 2017 sales were under the $250,000 threshold, the total number of exemptions would have equaled 72 percent of the market, or nearly 1 million transactions.

(The new appraisal threshold does not apply to loans insured or guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture or loans purchased by mortgage agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It doesn’t apply to credit union mortgages, either.)

One potential benefit that could stem from the new appraisal landscape is less fraud.

Back in the bad old days (about a dozen years ago), many faulty -- and perhaps fraudulent -- appraisals inflated the value of many properties far above what they were actually worth. The result was disaster for real estate, mortgage lending and then the general economy. Fewer appraisals might mean less of an opportunity for the industry to get in trouble.

But if the lender does not require an appraisal and you still want an unbiased view of the house’s value, there’s nothing to prevent you from hiring your own appraiser -- not your agent, who may or may not be working strictly on your behalf and is not necessarily a valuation expert, but a professional who looks beyond comparable properties and makes adjustments to bring the property you’re buying in line with others.

Ask yourself this: Is it a good investment to spend an extra $500 for some peace of mind on what may well be the most expensive purchase you’ll ever make?

-- Freelance writer Mark Fogarty contributed to this report.

A good real estate agent can be your best friend. But if you are just kicking the tires at open houses and aren’t quite ready to buy, you probably want to look around without being bothered.

Some agents will probably leave you alone. But in competitive markets, where clients are hard to come by, any agent worth his or her salt won’t turn you loose without first trying to establish some rapport.

At least that’s what they should be doing, says Debbie De Grote, a real estate trainer who has written numerous sales training scripts and closed more than 3,000 deals over her 16 years in the business.

Unless you really just like looking at houses -- to get decorating ideas, perhaps, or to see how other folks live -- there’s a reason you’re spending your weekends traipsing hither and yon.

Maybe you haven’t decided where you want to move, so you think there’s no need for an agent just yet. Perhaps you haven’t decided how much you want to spend. Or possibly you plan to hire your high school buddy or Aunt Matilda to be your agent once you take the plunge.

During a recent webinar, De Grote, the CEO of Forward Coaching in Costa Mesa, California, told agents how to overcome those and other common objections so they can sign up new clients.

Good stuff for realty pros, for sure. But also good information for consumers who really would prefer to be on their own. After all, if you know what’s coming at you, you will be able to prepare for it.

A potential client’s objection “could be legitimate,” De Grote said. But it also could be “a question in the prospect’s mind” or an attempt to “rattle” an agent or salesperson. The agent’s job is to figure out which.

There are a dozen or so common protests from both buyers and sellers, the coach reported. But the most customary is, “I’m just looking.” Or said another way, “We’re not serious right now.”

A good agent will look you right in the eye and say something like, “I’d glad you’re here. It’s commendable that you are taking the time to do your research. I encourage all my buyers to do that.”

The object, De Grote said, is to put you at ease. To lower your guard.

Next, the question: “How long have you been looking?” And then the hook: “Maybe I can help you with your research, or you can use our research. Tell me where you want to live, and your price points. I might even be able to tell you about houses that are not on the market yet.”

Another common dissent is, “I already have an agent.” But De Grote said that shouldn’t matter, at least not right away. “Maybe they do, maybe they don’t,” she advised. “So pretend they never said that and start selling yourself: ‘I’d love to help.’”

As the conversation commences, the coach said agents should ask several key questions, all designed to feel you out.

“Do you have a contract that obligates you?” Often, she said, people don’t. But even if they do, a good agent will continue digging: “Who is it? Maybe I know him.” “Where does she work?” “Is he full- or part-time?”

If your agent is two hours away and only works weekends or nights, that gives the agent in front of you an opening. “Go after them on that end,” De Grote advised.

A third typical protest involves commissions. Most sellers hate to pay the full boat, which generally runs from 5% to 7% of the selling price. So they sometimes bring up the possibility of listing with a discount brokerage, one that charges, say, just 1%.

Again, a good agent will sympathize with you to build that all-important rapport. “I feel the same way,” she might say, and then ask, “Is it the total amount of the fee, or are you trying to squeeze every last dollar out of the deal?”

Whatever you might answer, a good agent will respond with understanding. “That makes total sense,” the sales trainer suggested as a comeback, “but let me break it down for you. Which path is better, a cut-rate agent or a full-service real estate professional?”

Notice that “discount” is now “cut-rate.” De Grote suggested that agents stress that theme -- nicely, of course -- but stress it nonetheless. “A cut-rate agent is not likely to obtain the highest offer,” is her favored comeback. “If it worked, everybody would use a cut-rate agent. You get what you pay for. If the agent was a strong, powerful, experienced professional, why would he work for 1%?”

And then, the kicker: “You won’t be giving me any money upfront. I only get paid when the deal closes. I’m taking all the risk, providing all the services, so you might as well have the best.”

The message here for buyers and sellers: Hold your ground. Don’t be pushed into something you may regret, or into working with someone you’re not comfortable with. Take your time. The agent in front of you is just as likely to be available next month or next year.