I'm currently trying to sell my home and it's not seeing much traffic, despite our lowering the price several times. We've only shown it 4x in 2 months. The whole real estate market in my town is depressed and slow. I'm already marketing it below what I paid for it 5 years ago.

I'm thinking of out of the box possibilities like putting it up for auction. I'm not underwater, so this isn't like a bank foreclosure or short sale auction. It would be purely as a marketing tool, to ensure it sells and at as high a rate as possible if I can get a little bidding war going.

If I got talk to an auction house, what should I know? Do they usually get paid a percentage or flat rate? Is there usually a reserve price or something so if the bidding doesn't exceed that value I would not be committed to sell?

I assume my real estate agent would still be entitled to his 3% despite it selling at auction, not through anything particular he would have done to find a buyer?