Hi Vondre
Good post.
But I must take you up on one thing--

> #1: The owner who's trying to sell his or
> her own property doesn't want to spend big
> $$$$ to sell it. That's why they don't want
> to use a real-estate person. *They won't pay
> for a $995 package.

This is a case of different markets, I suspect.
In Sydney or Melbourne, people will most definitely pay $995. Just to clarify, I saved $14000 agents commission PLUS advertising cost of $2500. THAT is big money, not the $995.

That's why I said in an earlier post, your situation will be dictated by whether you live in a large competitive city with booming Real Estate or not.

The market here appears to be totally different from your one--the auction clearance rates for Sydney property(auctions ONLY) are over 65%, tending to be close to 80% in springtime.

We don't have 70% of properties languishing without being sold here.

So it's all relative, I guess.

Cheers

Tom B.