[NJblue]

I'm afraid that I can not provide any real advice or insight either - other than something I recall from a previous post here where a link was provided to an article about how to market your home in today's market. One piece of advice was to seek out the top sales person in the area and list with him/her.

From an outsider's perspective, it is easy to look at the process of listing and selling a house and think that it amounts to nothing more than writing a short paragraph describing the wonders of the house, taking a few pictures and then getting this information up on the internet and MLS. Perhaps in a seller's market this approach makes sense. Perhaps it also makes sense if you have no time pressure to sell your house and don't mind putting off your lifestyle change until you get your price AND save the 3+% (assuming that you still need to pay the buyers agent). Afterall, if the market has not bottomed out yet, selling a house sooner, rather than later, actually results in money saved. If selling through a Realtor makes the job go faster, these savings must be factored in as well. In addition, I imagine that the buyer is not dumb - they will see that you are saving money on the commision and perhaps expect a "piece of the action" by expecting a bigger discount.

Until recently, I would have been tempted to do just this. However, now that time is of the essence and the market is bad, I will be using the most productive Realtor that I can find and probably even sweeten the pot with an additional bonus if he can find a buyer within a month or two.