By Bridget McCrea

Not too long ago, homeowners selling their properties had only two options: Selling it yourself or shelling out a 6% to 7% commission for a full-service broker to do it for you. Thanks to the Internet and increased competition among real-estate firms, those options have widened to include discount brokers, who typically work for less than the standard 6% commission; flat-fee brokers, who charge a pre-set fee for their services; and by-owner services that supply do-it-yourself marketing tools.

How you sell your home depends on a variety of factors, including time constraints, how much you can afford to pay for assistance and your past home-selling experiences. For example, a family in a rush to relocate to a new city likely would do best with a full-service broker, while an experienced homeowner who has bought and sold multiple homes in the past may be able to get by on her own. Each approach has its pros and cons.

The decision usually comes down to how much time you have to spare, according to Julie Garton-Good, the Orlando, Fla.-based author of "Real Estate a la Carte: Selecting the Services You Need, Paying What They're Worth" (Dearborn, 2001).

"Selling a home is like taking on a part-time job for three hours a day, three to four days a week for several months," says Ms. Garton-Good. "Generally, people don't have any idea how long it takes to sell a home."

Safety also plays a role -- one that many homeowners likely don't consider before putting up a sign in their front yards. Most Realtors have years of experience steering families and children through occupied homes.

"Going the FSBO [For Sale By Owner] route is kind of like loading up your kids in a car with a stranger and waving goodbye," says Ms. Garton-Good. "It's tough to be in all places at once while showing your home, for example, and equally tough to accommodate all the showings, or do pre-screenings."

Brokers, including discount or flat-fee brokers, also are well-versed in state and local laws. For example, Ms. Garton-Good says, 32 states require seller-disclosure agreements to alert homebuyers to any problems or other issues with a property for sale. If a deal is signed between two parties who are both unaware of the requirement, serious problems can crop up.

"If the buyer later finds something wrong that wasn't disclosed, the seller can be responsible for triple damages in some states," says Ms. Garton-Good. "If you're selling a $200,000 home, for example, you can be responsible for up to $600,000 in damages."

Even so, hiring a full-service agent is no guarantee of a problem-free sale. Some unprofessional brokers concentrate on selling themselves and slack off once the three- or six-month listing agreement is signed. The seller is then bound to use their services, even if they're not producing any results. Others will put homes on the market for prices well above market value just to get the listings.

"Home sellers then find out that they're contractually bound to someone who is being unrealistic about how much they can get for it," says Ms. Garton-Good. "That can turn into a big waste of time."

If cutting commissions is your goal, realize that the key to working with discount or flat-fee Realtors is to first ask what you're not going to get, then decide how important those missing services are to you, says Ms. Garton-Good. For example, many such services do not offer Multiple Listing Service listings, a regional database of homes for sale that agents typically work from, while others offer only limited advertising services.

"If the fee seems too good to be true, another shoe is probably going to drop soon," she explains. "Often it will be the very service that you're actually going to need and right when you need it most."

Those homeowners who want to sell their homes on their own face their own set of challenges, especially if it's their first time, says Ms. Garton-Good. If you go that route, she advises seeking guidance in areas where you're weak -- such as contract negotiations. "The last thing you want to do," she adds, "is get a buyer and then lose them because you don't know what you're doing."

-- Ms. McCrea is a free-lance writer in Clearwater, Fla.