How can you buy a house without using a Realtor?

I've dealt with about 4 Realtors already in about 2 years trying to find my first home (in California) which has been so far a bad experience and unsuccessful. In my experiences thus far I'm come to the conculsion that all Realtors are just greedy used house salesman who really don't have my best interest in mind. How do I go about representing myself in looking at houses or if I want to make a offer on a home. I would like to eliminate a Realtor altogether as a middle man. I would appreciate any advise given!