Margaret and Charles Shupack have lived in four different states. They've also worked with numerous real estate agents to sell their homes along the way.

But they dreaded the idea of putting their Southwest Roanoke County home on the market, worrying that they'd lose another chunk of money to an agent for a commission payment.

"A lot of people are really sick and tired of selling their homes," Margaret Shupack said. "Now anymore, you have to give almost any bit of equity that you get to your Realtor."

Last fall, the Shupacks tried a different strategy. They sold their home through Help-U-Sell Valley Properties, a discount real estate firm in Roanoke County.

Steve Gallia, a principal broker at Help-U-Sell, sold the Shupacks' home in three days for their asking price of $319,000. The Shupacks only paid him $4,950 for the job, which is his standard fee for a house of that value.

Overall, they saved several thousand dollars, compared to what they would have paid a traditional agent who would have charged a commission of 5 percent or 6 percent.

Discount real estate companies such as Help-U-Sell aren't new to the Roanoke Valley. The firm opened in 2004, while some other similar models emerged long before.

But it's no secret that these kinds of firms are on the bubble along with traditional brokers, snatching up a share of a Roanoke Valley market that is saturated with real estate agents who all are vying for the same piece of the pie.

Now, perhaps, the competition in this market for real estate agents is stronger than ever.

Home prices are rising, and home activity has slowed nationally and in the Roanoke Valley.

And with interest rates jumping higher, pinching consumers' wallets, some people can't stomach shelling out 6 percent of their home's selling price to an agent.

Home buyers more often are turning to low-commission firms to help them sell their homes, whether it's in person or through the Internet. Lately, several new online real estate models have emerged, offering rebates and other incentives.

Some brokers nationally and in the Roanoke Valley also may renegotiate a lower commission fee to win a sale in a competitive market.

According to homeowners surveyed last fall by Real Trends, a trade publication, about 70 percent used a traditional broker to sell their home, but that number was down from 74 percent in a previous survey. The number of homeowners who sold their homes themselves also dropped.

But the number of consumers who turned to discount commission real estate firms rose in September.

Discount brokers sell homes at a lower percentage fee, but they may not offer all of the services that a traditional real estate agent offers.

Lowering fees

At Help-U-Sell, which has franchise offices across the country, Gallia provides signs for a home, advertises it in other publications and with the multiple listing service and negotiates prices. But his office doesn't usually show the home to prospective buyers. If a customer wants Gallia to show a home by appointment, they have to pay $950 at the home's closing.

Gallia charges a flat fee at a commission, at the home's closing, that's determined by the listing price. The fees are $2,950 if a home is listed for less than $300,000 and $4,950 if it's listed between $300,000 and $750,000. The fee is $6,950 if the home lists for $750,000 or more.

But Gallia isn't a novice to the real estate game. He was owner of a local Coldwell Banker Premier Realtors office for 10 years, and he has worked for other real estate firms.

But while doing that work, Gallia said he came to believe that an agent's services weren't always worth a 6 percent commission fee, depending on the price of the home and other conditions.

"The sale price on a residential property was drifting away from the value that the Realtor provides to the seller," he said.

Another local homeowner is trying out Help-U-Sell. Gary Robinson of Roanoke County listed his town home in Wexford Place with Help-U-Sell about a month ago.

"This is a whole lot cheaper than 6 percent [commissions]," he said. "That [commission rate] was an eye-catcher right there."

Robinson said he's been pleased so far with the way that Help-U-Sell has advertised his home. His wife has been handling the open houses.

In addition to Help-U-Sell, there's a slightly different variety of low-commission real estate firms embodied by Affordable Commission Realtors in Salem, which claims to offer all of the same services as a traditional real estate company. A team of agents markets houses, conducts open houses and handles price negotiating.

They charge a 3.9 percent commission, said Jack Richards, principal broker of the firm, which opened in Salem in 1994.

And another local model is called Realty Direct, which is also a franchise. The company actually gives cash back to homeowners, offering them about 33 percent of the real estate agent's commission. For new construction homes, they can receive 50 percent of the commission, said Mike McKenna, who is managing broker for the Roanoke Realty Direct office.

Realty Direct came to Roanoke in 2003, but the firm was founded in 1997.

"The real estate market really has changed a lot in the past years and with the advent of technology and of course, rising real estate prices, it just didn't make sense to us as a real estate brokerage to charge that much money to do the work that we do," McKenna said.

McKenna's company handles all aspects of the home sale, such as hosting open houses and advertising homes on the Internet.

Value of an agent

Local traditional agents, on the other hand, said they charge fair commissions for a broad range of work that includes advertising homes in magazines and newspapers, conducting open houses and handling transactions with mortgage brokers and other financial institutions that are involved in a home sale.

These services are identical to those offered by some discount agents.

Marge Tippie said she cares about one particular full-service agent feature.

Tippie, 68, said she's glad that a traditional broker is handling the sale of a home she owns with her husband, Ed, in Salem. One attraction: the Tippies are relieved they don't have to show the home to prospective buyers.

"It's a safety factor," she said. "With a Realtor, it's a controlled thing as far as who's coming and going in your house."

Brokers make their living by offering these kinds of services, and therefore, need to charge their relatively sizable commissions, some agents said.

Clifton Coulson, a real estate agent with Long & Foster, said he pays more than $25,000 a year in business-related expenses, such as advertising, yard signs and day-to-day items.

"There's no paycheck every week," he said. "If you don't sell houses, you don't stay in the business."

But he even admitted to negotiating lower commission rates at times to sell some homes, although he declined to be specific.

Real estate agents are allowed to negotiate commission rates, but it should only happen in exceptional situations, said Ed Smith, a broker at RE/MAX Valley Realtors in Roanoke County.

"Whatever those exceptions are, we need to earn that fee," he said. "We need to be above the crowd and making sure that we do what we are committed to do."

To make the differences between discount and regular real estate firms more transparent, the Virginia Association of Realtors pushed a bill this year through the Virginia General Assembly that will require all real estate firms to disclose to consumers the basket of services that they provide.

It's necessary because consumers "have different expectations of services," said Kit Hale, a broker at Roanoke's MKB Realtors and president of the VAR.

Smith said there's more to a traditional agent than the rate that they charge.

"We feel like we have not just a general knowledge of the business as a whole but have a specialized knowledge of all of the areas in the Roanoke Valley," he said. "If you're paying something for less, are you getting something for less?"

ABOUT THE FIRMS

A sampling of companies locally and those that are Internet-based that offer rebates, incentives and discounted commission fees to homeowners or home buyers:

Affordable Commission Realtors Agents charge 3.9 percent commission.

Help-U-Sell Valley Properties Agents charge fees for homes in certain price ranges -- but far below the traditional percentage.

Realty Direct Pays cash rebates for 33 percent of the agent's commission. The rebate is 50 percent of the commission for a newly constructed home.

BuySide Realty Offers cash rebate of 75 percent of the total commission earned by the Realtor. www.buysiderealty.com/

ZipRealty Offers 20 percent rebate on commission earned. www.ziprealty.com/index.jsp

LendingTree.com and RealEstate.com

Give American Express or Home Depot gift cards if you complete a home purchase with a broker whom the company recommends. There also are airline mileage rewards available.