Ginger Rickus says she's a seller at heart, so the semi-retired caregiver thought she'd have what was needed to sell her Mililani condominium using a discount brokerage service.

What Rickus found was something more home sellers are discovering in Hawai'i's superheated housing market: that this seller's market makes it easier to keep more sale proceeds by cutting out traditional broker services and fees.

"I just put it on the market," Rickus said of her two-bedroom condo, which is in escrow. "It was kind of fun. Exciting. It has been so perfect."

The rise of budget real-estate brokerage services, however, hasn't been perfect for everybody.

Traditional brokers chafe at claims by some discounters advertising "full service" at less cost, and say most buyers benefit from complete service that includes setting prices, preparing a home, marketing, holding open houses, negotiating terms and completing sale contracts.

Full-service brokers also say that savings touted by discounters are often deceptive, and that discounters aren't getting maximum prices for sellers.

Budget real-estate brokerage firms counter that consumers — especially more sophisticated sellers — are benefitting from more choices that can include many of the same services full-service firms provide, and that conventional brokers are trying to protect an antiquated commission structure where home sellers customarily pay 6 percent of the sale price split between buyer and seller agents regardless of a home's price.

Hawai'i's rapidly rising home prices have only fueled the debate and raised the value of what's at stake.

On O'ahu, it would cost $36,900 to sell a median-priced ($615,000) single-family home on a 6 percent commission. Discounters say they can shave $20,000 to $30,000 off such an expense.

How much savings sellers actually reap from low-end sales packages, which can cost a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, is difficult to discern because a home's maximum value (what anyone is willing to pay) is impossible to measure.

Also unclear is whether discount practices are partly fueling a recent rise in consumer complaints against industry professionals and ethical complaints between brokers in Hawai'i.

In other states, controversial laws have been proposed or enacted to regulate discount brokers, drawing anti-trust opposition from the federal government.

"The profession is going through some real interesting challenges," said Rochelle Lee Gregson, chief executive officer of the Honolulu Board of Realtors. "We've got some real unhappy people on both sides of the issue."

DISCOUNTERS GAINING

Discount real-estate brokerages are not new, but have gained unprecedented standing in recent years because of greater consumer acceptance of Internet-based services like ForSaleBy Owner.com, which Rickus used to sell her home using an $800 "premium" package.

Two of the nation's biggest discount brokerage franchises, Help-U-Sell and Assist-2-Sell, established Hawai'i operations in 2000 and 2003, respectively, and have been adding offices and agents.

"It's just growing tremendously," said Richard Cricchio, a broker who became a Help-U-Sell franchisee after 10 years as a traditional broker in Hawai'i with Century 21 and Prudential Locations.

Cricchio said he brokered 60 transactions in his first year with Help-U-Sell, and is on pace for 600 this year.

"The first year was more of an educational process because people were led to believe they have to pay 6 percent," he said. "People were very skeptical (about discount services). They said, 'It can't be real ... there's got to be something wrong.' I saw this concept as the way of the future."

Now more independent brokers are also branching out to offer a range of discount and limited-service options, including the chairwoman of the Hawai'i Real Estate Commission, Trudy Nishihara, who established low-cost brokerage Hawaii Home Bids.com LLC last year.

Jeffrey Samuels, a former Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties agent who established his own flat-fee brokerage business in late 2002, said his company last year sold $140 million of property, which would generate $4.2 million in traditional seller fees at the 3 percent rate. Samuels, whose firm charges $3,500 to sell any home, said his take was $1 million.

"It looks like I saved people about $3 million," he said. "It's a lot of money."

Business is about 30 percent higher for Samuels this year, and he is trying to break into the luxury market by recently partnering in Elite Pacific Properties to sell homes worth at least $1 million for a 1 percent commission.

"It's a different world in real estate than it used to be, but we're still selling the same house on the same piece of dirt," he said.

With the rising prominence of discounters offering flat-fee services, discount commissions, rebates and à la carte fee-for-service menus, consumers face an increasing array of low-price sale programs that can be difficult to compare.

Nathalie Mullinix of Kailua-based Realty Universal charges $500 to list a property on six Internet sites and the Multiple Listing Service database for Realtors. The deal includes a how-to guide, signs, some print advertising and 30 days of free e-mail consulting. But it's up to the seller to provide photos, pick a sales price, hold open houses, negotiate offers and complete contracts.

Assist-2-Sell Buyers & Sellers Realty expects sellers to hold their own open houses, and charges $3,995 (plus about $1,000 for for every $100,000 in a home's sale price over $300,000) to market and sell a home. A "paperwork only" option is $2,495 for sellers who already have buyers.

Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties holds open houses for sellers and charges a flat fee that can range from $2,750 for homes priced at or under $200,000 on the low end, up to $9,750 for homes priced at $1 million. It generally costs about $750 less to handle paperwork only.

But much of the savings for sellers using discount brokers is derived from not paying agents representing buyers, which typically accounts for half the cost to sell a home.

Buyer brokers customarily earn a 3 percent commission. On a $615,000 home, that's $18,450.

About 60 percent of Help-U-Sell sales, and 50 percent of Assist-2-Sell sales, in Hawai'i are made with buyers not represented by brokers, the companies said.

Bryn Kaufman, an agent with Coldwell, complains that many flat-fee discount broker advertisements tout big savings by assuming a seller pays no commission to a buyer's agent.

"There seems to be some confusion out there," he said. "A lot of people think that's it (a flat-fee charge). Usually, it's $3,000 plus 3 percent to a (buyer's) broker."

'ECONOMICS 101'

Bill Chee, president of Prudential Locations, said that discounters who don't network with buyer brokers don't maximize exposure of homes and therefore likely don't obtain the highest price for sellers.

"The more people you expose it to, the higher the price," he said. "That's Economics 101. What seller in their right mind wouldn't want to get the top price?"

Lyle Martin, co-founder of Nevada-based Assist-2-Sell, said the company allows buyers to decide if they want to pay to network with buyer agents through the Multiple Listing Service. He said that in markets with high demand and high prices, sellers often don't want to pay more for the same service just because their property value is up.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.