Today I signed away our property to some people I don't know for less money than I thought it was worth through an agent who apparently felt more loyalty to them than to us, making more on the deal than we did. In fact, we took a loss on this house to the tune of about 5,000. I hate that.
My advice to all you out there thinking about selling your home is not to sell it yourself. Rather, avoid going through the big name real estate agents and find a discount broker. I wish I had. The discount broker works for the seller. He/she gets a set fee no matter how much the house sells for, and that fee is usually substantially lower than the regular broker. For example, there is a discount broker in my town whose set fee is $2500; for comparison purposes, my agent made over $8,000 on this deal. That $5500 difference would have made up for the loss I took on the price, and I would have broken even.
Hindsight is always sharper than foresight. Sigh.
