Want to sell your house quicker for a higher price? Offer your agent an incentive to sell it above a certain amount by a certain date, says Stuart Diamond, author of "Getting More: How to Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World" and professor of negotiation at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
For instance, "tell the Realtor that, for every dollar they get over $300,000, you will pay them 10 percent, or 20 percent," he says. "It's found money anyway, if you can get that. Don't think of it as losing 10 or 20 percent. Think of it as gaining 80 or 90 percent."
Does that mean you'll have to explain your quick-sell reasons to the agent? Not necessarily, Diamond says. "I would tend not to tell my agent everything, but tie the incentive to a price and a date," he says.
One negotiating strategy: Make the offer short-term. For example, tell the agent "you have this incentive for three weeks," Diamond says. In the next few weeks, that agent will give your property a lot of time, traffic and attention, he says.