With today's high home prices in many parts of the country, real estate commissions can easily add up to tens of thousands of dollars.

A homeowner pays their real estate agent a commission to successfully facilitate a sale. Basically, if you go to the trouble of listing your home for sale, and work with a real estate agent to help you sell your home, you want a successful sale. Most real estate agents charge a commission upon closing to recoup the cost of their services, which are otherwise free.

If you do decide to contract a real estate agent and you are going to pay the agent a commission, you'll want to make sure you get what you pay for, and a selling price you expect.

Here are five top tips that will help you through the process.

1. Set goals with your real estate agent

   A professional agent will sit down with you and present a specific plan to market your home.

   Once he or she provides you with a comparative market analysis (CMA) detailing all of the current listings with pending and sales information included, he or she should also provide you with a comprehensive marketing plan to sell your home.

   A marketing plan clearly spells out the steps your agent will take to sell your home.

   Some of those requirements may include steps to:

   • Place your listing on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
   • Install a "For Sale" sign and lockbox
   • Hold open houses for real estate brokers and the public
   • Advertise in local media publications and online
   • Create a professional four-color brochure
   • Handle details of the contract negotiation, inspections and settlement
   
   
2. Establish a timeline

   To make sure the steps you and your real estate agent have agreed upon are completed in a timely manner, it's a good idea to establish a prospective timeline of activities. This ensures both you and your agent have similar expectations as to how and when he or she will market your home.

   A timeline also helps you to hold your real estate agent more accountable and enables you to open up discussion and look for solutions faster if your agent does not deliver as expected.

3. Request regular progress reports

   Most real estate agents arrange weekly telephone meetings with sellers and provide progress updates outlining the marketing activities that took place during the previous week.

   You'll want to know the number of ads that ran, including the days and names of publications, and how many showings were held that week. Also have your agent relay feedback from the potential home buyers who visited your home. It's better to learn about buyer objections early on so that you can quickly rectify the problems and make the home more attractive to potential home buyers.

4. Hold your real estate agent accountable

   Have a clear understanding of the action steps and timeframe you and your agent agreed upon to market your property. Doing so will put you more in control of the selling process.

   After 30 days or so, meet with your agent and review the completed action steps. At that time, bring up any issues you have with your agent. That gives your agent the opportunity to respond and take the actions needed to get the house sold.

   If, for some reason, your agent is unresponsive to your requests, your best recourse is to contact the managing broker of the office that has your listing.

5. Follow your real estate agent's advice

   Work closely with your agent and take his/her recommendations for pricing, staging and home improvements seriously. The two of you working together will help facilitate the sale you want.

   If you list your home too high or too low, it will undercut the rest of your agent's marketing plan and services. The wrong price can undo great marketing efforts.

If your real estate agent follows the marketing plan he or she wrote and is doing an excellent job, your house will sell and it will be a "win-win" for yourself and your agent.

For more success tips for working with your real estate agent, visit www.HomeGain.com. For more information about making home improvements to your home before selling it, visit www.HomeSaleMaximizer.com.

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