That’s a good question but it’s the wrong question. What you really need to be asking is “how do you walk away with the most money in your pocket when selling your home?” There’s about a 10-15% price elasticity on what two similar homes will sell for. There are several factors that determine how much one house gets versus the other.

The first is how well does the home show? On average, staged homes sell 88% faster and for 20% more than nonstaged ones (Realtor.com)

The second is how many buyers do you get through the home? The more people you get through your home the more likely you are to get a bidding war.

Another thing is how well objections where handle. If the buyer doesn’t like the small kitchen, lack of storage space or shortage of bathrooms an experienced realtor will have solutions & suggestion to remediate those problems.

And lastly, how well was the negotiation process done? An experienced realtor has done plenty of negotiating, therefore, they have experience & strategies to get you the best price.

If you translate these into skills, it’s professional staging, it’s marketing exposure, it’s experience, and it is negotiation skills.

You can pay 1% and get your house listed on MLS to give it some marketing exposure, but you’re not going to make the most money with that. You can pay 5%, get a team that has all those skills, and will end up getting you the most money even after paying commission.

After all, isn’t that really what you want, the most money in your pocket?