How to motivate my realtor to sell my houses?

[Josh Miller]

I own 4 different homes that are all sitting on the MLS and I would like to sell them by the end of the year. Locations are:

Newberry, SC (listed at $45.5)

Trinity, AL (listed at $87.5k)

Heber Springs, AR (listed at $105k)

Gilmer, TX (listed at $49.9k)

All homes are slightly below market value and I could just wait for the houses to sell but I'm motivated and want to help motivated my listing agents.   Currently all have standard broker contracts at 6%. 

Is it ethical and legal to offer my realtors a $1,000 bonus if they can sell by the end of the year (within say plus or minus 10% of listing price)?  I have a couple concerns with doing something like this, one of which is if the home doesn't sell will I end up with a really disgruntled agent come first of the year?    

Is it common to offer bonuses to realtors in slower markets, any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.  Thanks

[Jay Hinrichs]

low value homes in secondary or tertiary markets can take forever to sell at any price.

many times the only people buying these are investors like your self.. so you need to back into what an investor in that area will pay for a given cash flow and price it accordingly.

Folks that CAN afford to buy a home  and that means they can afford a 1k mortgage simply are not going to buy a 50k home to live in   in most instances they will buy the nicest thing they can.

folks don't really realize this until your stuck with these things..