September 15th, 2007 by George

By Lauren Baier Kim - realestatejournal.com

Selling a home in a down market is not unlike hawking ice cream in February.

In this cold real estate climate, there aren’t many people clamoring to buy, leaving home sellers
facing a tough time. Some may go the traditional route and hire a real-estate agent at a full commission to sell their home.

But when the housing market is sluggish and home prices drop, this can be costly: a seller of a $200,000 home could pay $12,000 in real-estate commissions at a 6% rate — cutting even more into homeowners’ potential profits. Also, securing financing for a new home is increasingly difficult for many people.

In a special package of articles this week, RealEstateJournal.com looks at people who’ve sold their homes using a variety of
nontraditional methods:

• A Seattle Internet entrepreneur who posted a “Make Me Move” price of $1.25 million on Zillow.com for his condo and sold his home for close to that price.

• A widow in New Jersey, looking to downsize, swapped her home with neighbors who were looking for more space.

• A CEO decided to auction off his multimillion Florida estate after a long listing period failed to net a buyer.

• A couple who went the “for-sale-by-owner” route and left an expensive Portland, Ore., suburb for a
more affordably priced area in Montana.

• Another couple who got lucky and sold their home at a yard sale.

• Plus, some recent home sellers explain how they sold their home in the current market.

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