No. of Recommendations: 4
I also like the Aussie practice of selling via auction. A home is listed online, broker holds 2-3 open houses. An auction is held about a month later, unless the seller agrees to a private bid before. Most houses sell at the auction, and there is very little uncertainty about when and whether a house will sell.
This is pretty common in a lot of places...but usually only during times of booming markets.
If buyers are more scarce, it generally pays to "work" the sale more, and the auction trend usually fades.
In France the commissions seem to vary a lot, if you know they will negotiate. Generally quite negotiable, since agents REALLY want listings...there is no equivalent of MLS.
I once negotiated a commission of "constant + 20% of the amount by which the final offer exceeds XXX".
(a very hard to value property, so nobody knew how close we would get to the high asking price--I wanted the agent to be very highly motivated to elicit an offer close to it)
Jim
