Having an Educated Real Estate Agent makes all the difference.

For those who can't take it anymore, here is a Master list of where you can take control.

Junk Mail:

You can try to opt out of direct mail solicitations, but it will probably not work very well. A private organization, the Direct Marketing Association, handles that list and not every merchant with pages of hot leads is a rule-abiding member.

If you want to give it a shot anyway, write the association, in care of Mail Preference Service at

P.O. Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512. There is an online form at www.the-dma.org/consumers/offmailinglist.html. If you want to get more mail, there is also a place to sign up to get on the list...

E-Mail:

Whatever you do, do not respond to an unsolicited e-mail message when it gives you the option to opt out of receiving more e-mail. The is a trick used by spammers to confirm they hit a live address. Once that happens, your address goes to a prime list and is sold to other spammers. You may even find legitimate businesses eventually using addresses on that list.

So how do you prevent spam? Unfortunately, other than spam filters, there really is no good way.

You can try to make it harder for spammers to get your address in the first place by never posting your address in public forums. Spammers employ software to scrape the sites of anything with that @ symbol. Instead spell it out in a unique way like "thenameofthiscolumn at nytimes.com".

Credit Card Offers:

Almost as annoying as the direct marketing calls is the mailbox stuffed with credit card solicitations. The more you ignore their offers, the more you will receive.

One way to stop the offers is to sign up for so many cards and run up such high levels of debt that you become a credit untouchable. That is not a good plan. Instead, call (888) 567-8688, but be ready to give out some personal information like your Social Security Number.

The major credit bureaus, like Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, that collect information on your borrowing habits let you opt out of what they call prescreened offers of credit at

https://optoutprescreen.com. You can do it for a period of five years, or permanently.

Opting out of prescreened offers of credit might also be useful when you apply for a mortgage. When you seek a loan, the credit bureaus notice and they put you on a "Trigger list." The information that you are a ripe prospect is then sold to other lenders in as little time as 24 hours. Suddenly, other lenders are calling.

"It hurts the image of our members," said Harry Dinham, president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. His group also objects because it could be "an avenue to identity theft." He said, "We actually don't know who they sell it to."

Will opting our protect your identity from thieves? Mr. Pratt said that "Lender data tells us that prescreened offers of credit result in lower levels of fraud." Nonetheless, he did recommend using a paper shredder on the offers you do reject.