Only one, a Huntington man, was having trouble, she said. He had gotten a fixed-rate mortgage for 80 percent of the home's cost, put down 10 percent and obtained an interest-only adjustable home equity loan for the rest. The home-equity loan had recently jumped from a 9 percent rate to 12.8 percent, and he was struggling to handle the higher payments.

She referred him to Housing Help, a counseling agency in Greenlawn, and tried to intervene with his lender, Countrywide - but to no avail. He's renting two bedrooms in the home to help with the payments.

Quirk's efforts impressed Susan Lagville, Housing Help's executive director.

"When people are having a hard time paying their mortgage, they don't look for help soon enough," Lagville said. "By the time they get to us, it's too late."

A Huntington resident, Quirk hadn't intended to go into real estate when she and her husband moved with their three daughters to the United States from England in 1993. But the broker who sold them a house told her she'd be good at it, so when her youngest started school, she decided to give it a try. A Peruvian native - who follows her grandmother's advice never to reveal her age - Quirk mainly works with immigrants because she's fluent in Spanish and French.

She plans to continue to keep tabs on her former clients and is now doing more to help current ones find financing. "The market is very tough right now because people can't get the financing they used to get," she said.

So Quirk's putting clients in touch with mortgage brokers, finding out what loan programs brokers are offering and what credit profiles her clients need to obtain the best rates.

Quirk's actions don't surprise those who know her well. Adriana and David Vargas were her first real estate clients, and they've kept in touch ever since Quirk found the couple their first home in Northport.

"She would never want anyone to be duped into thinking they could afford a mortgage that they couldn't," said Adriana Vargas, 34, a mother of three who works for the Village of Hempstead. "She feels they all - in some way or another - are a friend, not a sale."

BIZ FACTS

The holders of more than 900,000 subprime, alt-A and other adjustable-rate mortgages will see their rates reset in 2008, with the peak coming in the third quarter, according to Republic Mortgage Insurance Co.