Yes, it's hard and there's pain and sometimes treatment required.

If you are working directly with sellers, my best piece of advise would be to find out what they need, generally there is a pain point or some sort of distress either in the sellers personal life or with the house itself.

Mortgage rates make buying a permanent residence painful and costly... 

I think you'll be spot on with a paperwork change and the offers containing the commission rate, seems like the least painful way to move forward. 

All landlords experience situations like this (experience through pain/expense). 

It was a pain in the neck and one of the many reasons I decided to drop my listings from VRBO. 

We also bought at high interest rates, which was painful, but the kicker was insurance costs near the coast.Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I used to print it as well but that can be a pain if and when anything changes.  

Long-story short, we don’t “need” the clients, and the clients don’t “need” us, but we have found there is a strong value provided to clients who do decide to work with us and want to avoid a lot of those early on trial and error pains and expenses.

If you can take a little financial pain, I think it is better to list in the slow season.