Why would you take the trouble of selling your house yourself when you can get it done through a real estate agent? The reason here is that you can save substantial amount of money in this process. Having said that, do not think that you can save the entire amount of commission that you would have otherwise paid to your agent.
When you do the selling yourself, you have to spend some of your own time in collecting information related to house selling and for getting more involved in the process. You can get information about current market price by browsing internet sites such as Realtor. ca, ComFree or ByTheOwner. Please check the time period for which the house is on the market along with its asking price. This gives you a fair idea whether the house price mentioned is proper or not.
When you avoid real estate agents, you lose the huge market which they serve. So you might have to keep your house price slightly less than the current market price. Another drawback in this scenario is that you have to be available to show your house to prospective buyers. This might consume a lot of your time. Again, if you are not available at a time convenient to the buyers, you might loose good chances of selling.
Still, if you are ready to do your homework and have some time to spend, going for selling yourself is worth a try. Besides saving money, you might enjoy and learn something from the whole process.