Real Estate Commission: 4% vs 5% vs 6%

[Michael Archard]

I have always offered 4% agent commission on the sales of my flips and personal residences (7 deals and counting) and have been able to get over asking price on 5 out of the 7. I have been told by a few real estate agents that offering a higher commission (i.e., 5-6%) will result in a higher sale price, and pay back the increased commission and then some. I have even seen some data that tries to support this, but the data was supplied by an agent and was not normalized by property value or asking price (the higher priced homes tended to have the higher commissions offered). 

I'd like to hear from both agents and non-agents to hear what proof may be out there to justify this strategy, or is this simply a ploy used by agents to make a few more bucks?

Thanks,
Mike