As many people are at first, you might be skeptical about paying out more in commissions. However, if you look at the math in our Interactive Table, you will find that when the sales price is increased even in small amounts, that you will actually NET MORE than with a lower commission. If you believe agents will work harder to sell your home if you offer them more money, give Street Smart a try. If time is a factor in the sale of your home, you may want to offer an even higher commission to the buyer's agent, such as 9% or 10%. A recent article in the New York Post suggests that such strategies are working well.

Another article recently published in Wired Magazine also supports this approach.  This article tells of a recent study of 100,000 Chicago area homes, comparing homes sold by Real Estate agents vs. agent-owned homes that they sold themselves.  The findings of this study were extremely interesting.  It was found that agents' homes stayed on the market for 10 days longer than those homes which were sold for their clients. And, that the average sales price was 3% higher for the agent-owned homes.  This study would certainly suggest that agents, in general, value their homes higher than their clients.   Perhaps they are more patient to wait for higher offers when they are the ones who stand to benefit from a higher net.