Really, right now in the San Diego area I think going w/o a broker, or with a discount flat fee broker is the only way you can squeak out of a property with gains similar to what you would have got a year ago. By that I mean that buyers with any brains smell blood in the water and expect good deals now. For a seller, the best fat to excise from a deal first is the 5-6% agent commission, or at least half of it. So, the strategy would be to use a flat fee broker to put it in the mls at 2-3% to buyer agent, price it 2-3% lower than you otherwise would have (since you are not paying a seller agent), and advertise hard to find a buyer yourself and thereby even avoid the buyer agent commission. You may screw your (former) neighbors with the comp you leave behind, but you might still be able to squeak out a net proceed similar to last summer after actually landing a buyer, while other agent represented properties sit. Of course, it all requires some work, and some realism about what your house will truly sell for.
