You've been longing for peaceful country living.You find your dream house on a quiet, tree-lined lane, which dead ends at a lovely, bucolic, 70-acre meadow. You're sure that will keep traffic noise to a minimum; all you can hear are the birds and the crickets. Peace and quiet at last!

The quiet-craving clients in this scenario were saved by their buyer-broker, who found out that the wildflower-strewn field at the end had been bought by a developer with plans to build five houses on the first 20 acres. In addition to years of construction noise, this would also necessitate widening the road. Oh, and that dead end? The developer was also quietly buying land on the other side of meadow. That dead end was due to become a through-street within a few years.

The prospective buyers did not discover these facts on their own. A search of the town planning board records was useless. The developer was still operating under official radar, yet through professional contacts, knowledge of the area, and general savvy and awareness of development trends, their buyer broker was able to find out what was in the works.

In this scenario their buyer's agent saved these people a lot of headaches and heartaches, not to mention a lot of money.­