If most other listings are already offering 3% or more and you're at 2.5 you definitely need to change it. If 2.5% commission is competitive with other listings in your area then the commission is fine and you would be better off just lowering your price.

I did this on a cookie cutter house where I knew we had a lot of competition in my price range. I figured it would at least put me at the top of the stack of houses that the realtor was going to take the buyer to see.

It worked, we sold for just under asking in about 6 weeks. We had it priced fairly competitively, too, that helps.

I also noticed that I always seemed to get the first thing in the morning appointments or calls to see the house, another indication that my house was being shown first...

Question for you Linda,

Do you have the same belief that lowering the price is the best way to go in this tight market rather than offering a higher commission? Normally, reducing the price is the logical thing to do, but when there's not alot of people looking, what incentive does a reduction of a few thousand do? Right now, we need the realtors to bring in the buyer and it seems to me that perhaps an incentive to them is the way to go. What do you think?

Our house has been listed for just over a week. No showings. We had an open house today and only one couple came, not even nosy neighbours! They were actually serious buyers as they're looking to move to the area.

I'm wondering in *this* market when it's hard to even get showings, if raising the commission would at least get lookers to the house?

I'm not the only one going through this. I visited an open house in my area today to compare to ours. This was the 4th OH the realtor had and he only had 4 signatures on his sign in sheet from ALL of the OH's he's conducted. He said few people are looking and that house didn't have a showing for the first two weeks.

I talked to another neighbour who took his house off the market and I told him I was shocked that we had no showings yet. He said it took over 2 weeks to get a showing on his house, but then again, his house was really overpriced.

I'm confident if we get lookers, that we will sell. We are signing for a price reduction on Monday. Our realtor actually suggested we wait it out a bit more, but I want to see if the price drop will at least get people in the door.

So, to keep in topic and not turn this thread into my listing, would it be beneficial to consider a higher commission to encourage realtors to bring people in since the market here is so cold? Should we wait until Sept to consider offering a higher commission since Aug is typically not a great month to list a home with school going back in, summer holidays, etc.? Right now, we're at 6% with it being 5% if the Realtor brings the buyer.

Time2sell, I completely agree with Linda here. I, too, live in Montgomery County and am quite sure that 2.5% is low here. I don't know whether you need to go to 3.5% to entice agents to show your house, but you definitely need to up it to 3.0% to be competitive with everyone else. And, btw, that doesn't mean that you need to increase the total commission to 6% to ensure that the listing agent gets half. Having a listing agreement with a 5.5% commission wherein the selling agent gets 3% is quite common.

sparkels, I dont believe raising the commission will bring in more buyers unless your commission is not competitive with what else is out there. Right now there just simply isnt a lot of buyers. I also think that reducing your price after one week is jumping the gun. Its too soon. Some houses are not even getting their first showings for 2 - 3 weeks, there is just too much out there right now.

Well- first there's the problem of few buyers, but I think the bigger problem is that there are so many homes for sale, and that drastically dilutes any chances you have of having your home shown. Raising the buyers agent's commission gets agents attention, and yours would be one of the first they show to anyone shopping. If you are priced aggressively, spic and span, and ready to move on increasing the % can be just the incentive needed to get things happening.

We did it and sold within two weeks, but I was motivated and ready to go- a serious, serious seller.
The buyers agent told me at the closing that the increased % homes were the only ones she was showing at all- there were just too many to sort through.

linda: sparkels, I dont believe raising the commission will bring in more buyers unless your commission is not competitive with what else is out there. Right now there just simply isnt a lot of buyers. I also think that reducing your price after one week is jumping the gun. Its too soon. Some houses are not even getting their first showings for 2 - 3 weeks, there is just too much out there right now.

We reduced by $6K to put us in the next lower price scale. We were the most expensive house in the neighbourhood and when people searched in the $225K-$250K range, our house wouldn't pop up as we were listed at $253,500. We listed it at that price as a test with the full intention of reducing to the lower range within a week or two if there was no action or if feedback was that we were overpriced.

What I didn't expect was absolutely no showings. After all the research and time I have spent preparing for this sale, I was dumbfounded with absolutely no lookers.

We are lower price per square foot than 60% of the homes in our area and I felt that we had a better chance of getting lookers if we were in the same range of price as all other homes in the neighbourhood. We are no longer the most expensive, there are two or three higher than ours. The reduction was small and I feel it was the right move for us.

The 6% commission is standard AFAIK. We didn't negotiate with the realtor on that except for him taking a reduced commission should he bring the buyer.

Sparkels, it sounds like a smart move in your case and I would have probably advised you differently if I had known you were the most expensive house in the neighborhood. Your agent is lucky you're understanding of the market.

I have a 90 year old mans house on the market, he's very difficult to communicate with (hard of hearing). For no other reason, he just decided "what he wanted" for his house. Didnt matter what the comps said. He's now been on the market for 3 weeks with 1 showing and I dread calling him for the price reduction. I know it'll be a two hour conversation, half of which he won't hear, the other half he won't understand. UGH! I was dealing with his daughter first which was working out fine. At least she is reasonable. As soon as the paperwork was sent to him for signature, things became impossible. Yesterday he called to say thank you, I am taking the sign down, I want to take my house off the market. Im either going to a nursing home or back to my home. Im choosing to go back to my home. I was sort of relieved. Today, he called and said, please disregard yesterdays message. I guess that price reduction will either be the beginning of getting a buyer for this house or the end of a listing. There isnt much I can do for him at this point.

When we sold last summer in the very-tanked S. CA market, we started with the normal commission split for our area.

Two failed contracts later, and a zillion more houses on the market, we decided to add a bonus to the buyer's agent that could get the deal closed...10K...ouch!

There were five of our exact same model for sale when ours was for sale, all priced about the same. We really needed to get it shown and sold, as we had already moved out-of-state. That 10K made sure our house was one of the first of these models seen. Long story short, NONE of the other houses ever sold, and are still on the market a year later.

Spending 10K sucked at the time, but I feel it really ended up getting that house sold. Plus, all these houses now have list prices way lower than our sold price. Get it sold, and don't follow the market into the toilet.

Good luck, I know it is no fun!

Thanks everyone for all the replies. I spoke to my agent today and he didn't want to raise the commission to 3.5%. He says that Remax has studied this and doesn't believe that raising the commission to 3.5% would make a difference. I insisted that we at least raise it to 3.0%. So that will be done soon.

He suggests that we consider a price reduction after Labor Day. He wants me to wait out August and see what September brings. Like someone said, I don't want to follow the housing market into the can, but I did hire my Realtor based on his knowledge over mine.

My house is very nice inside, better than the local neighborhood market, but its a matter of getting people in to see it. Plus at 2BR/2BA it's almost a niche market. I do have a screened porch though which can be converted into an additional bedroom or sunroom. Guess I'll have to wait and see.

Sparksal - Your house is very nice and has great curb appeal. I'm sure it will sell at it's own pace. But a price reduction can't hurt either.

Linda17 - thanks for the good advice - it will be raised as soon as I fax back my approval.

Bethesdamadman - Thanks for the advice. You seem to know the Maryland market better than I do. I will raise to 3% at this point. It's like I want to do everything but it has to be done rationally and not desperately. My REA keeps saying hold on, be patient, you know I told you it would be a long haul.

disneyrsh and cearbhill - Great advice. I want to do this but my Realtor is dissuading me. I will keep your successes in mind though as he and I discuss strategies to move the house.

teelag - really great advice. I will keep it in mind if nothing happens. How long did you wait to make these tough decisions?

We added our bonus after 7 months on the market and two failed contracts. We also dropped the price in 25K increments, for a total of about 75K over this time period. We were selling right at the beginning of the media freak-out and every buyer was running scared.

If I had to do it all over, I would have dropped the price in one huge chunk and added a bonus much sooner...would have saved a lot on holding costs since we had already moved out after month four.

cearbhaill - We don't want to chase the market down, but we also have time to sell. It's such a catch 22 b/c the longer it takes, the lower prices seem to go. For us, I think a higher commission will be the last resort, but one that is in the back of my mind if we don't get lookers.

Linda - Sparkels, it sounds like a smart move in your case and I would have probably advised you differently if I had known you were the most expensive house in the neighborhood. Your agent is lucky you're understanding of the market.

This is why it's so frustrating for me. I've been planning this sale for nearly a year. I thought I did all the right things and then we can't even get buyers in here.

I also want to allow the realtor to do his job, but because I have done so much planning, it's hard for me to step back and let him do it. He didn't advise me against lowering the price as he said we were less per sq. ft. than more than half the houses in the neighbourhood. Still, I had to go with my gut. I didn't like being the most expensive and in a different price range than all the other houses.

It must be so hard for realtors when you have a client like the old man. Their age and possibly generation gap have a huge role to play in how they deal with this situation. I'm sure the old adage 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks' comes into play here.

teelag - very interesting strategy! Thanks for letting me know about it because if we do get desperate, that may be an option. I wonder if the legalities of that "bonus" vary by state? Were there any other conditions added to it or was it just whomever got it signed, sealed and delivered got the bonus in addition to their share of the commission? I'm sure something like that had to be worded very carefully. Can I ask how you implemented it? Also, what happened that two deals fell through?

When we first listed in April, our agent suggested offering 3.5% to buying agent because it would bring more traffic. So we listed at 7% total. After a few months, we I had her reduce the commission to 6%. I don't feel that the additional .5% brought any more traffic. I felt that an agent would be happy to get any sale these days so that difference in commission wasn't a make it or break it thing.

When we sold our last home we listed at 2% (our agent wasn't taking any) and the buying agent negotiated his commission with the sales price and he got just over 2.5% when it was all done.

Haven't had time to read thru the responses - if it has already been mentioned, I apologize. Our experience - Add to the multiple listing a "spiff" - a Bonus of $X (like a $1000.00) to the agent who brings you a ratified contract by DATE (August 30,2007 for example). We have sold 3 houses - 1 in Montgomery Co - 2 in AACo using this tactic. It generates showings and actions. Agents are motivated by sales -$$$$ - just like all salespeople. No digs - I've been in sales many years - we are motivated by money. It is an incentive to get the house shown. In one of the houses, the same listing agent sold the house and gave the buyers the bonus $ - well actually, I "sold" the house but turn the buyers over to the listing agent since it was listed. They then wanted the bonus money - which they got. But the agent got the full commission - we got the house sold - and everyone was happy.

Regarding the bonus, we just added it to our regular contract where the agent split was specified. I can't remember the exact wording. The bonus was only mentioned on the agent MLS sheet under special comments and it specified that bonus payment was concurrent with a successful closing. For all I know, the buyer's agent might have given the buyer some of it or might have kept it all for herself.

Sorry, I don't know the legalities of it either.

Our first contract fell through literally three days before closing because the buyer's financing imploded. It's a long story, but they even still had their financing contingency in place, so we didn't even get their earnest money. Probably could have gotten lawyers involved, but the cost of that would have just eaten any possible earnest money won anyway.

Second contract they totally low-balled us, we countered with a very good deal, and they walked, plus they had a house-selling contingency on it. We couldn't wait for their condo to sell...condo market was already bust by this point.

Good luck selling...and hopefully you don't have to do any of these tactics. I would drop your price to as low as you can go and just get it done.

teelag - thanks for the info. The problem with dropping the price to as low as we can go is that is not bringing buyers. Smaller homes that are cheaper are not getting showings either. There just aren't the people out looking. I'm almost convinced that we may have to offer a bonus to the realtor who brings the buyer and closes the deal. Lowering the price still may not bring anyone in as that has been the case with smaller lower priced homes in our neighbourhood. The only way to get buyers in is to get the realtor's to show it, which in turn means they need to be motivated to do so.