For discussions on buying and selling I really like the gardenweb home forum which you might want to take a look at and/or post.

For selling real estate I've usually looked around and found a few agents who have completed sales in the area and then interview them.

Pricing has been the big issue, as some agents are really bad at suggesting pricing. I have found the last couple of times that I listed that you can sometimes get very different answers to these questions:

How much should I list my house for?
If I really wanted to have a contract on my house in 90 days, what should I list it for?

I found that by asking the second question I often got very different answers than to the first question.

Some agents are good at telling you how to stage and others aren't.

It might be worthwhile to look at (either online or in person) some of the houses that would be the competitors to your house to see what is typically expected in the price range. I'm not saying you have to spend the money to get those things but it can affect pricing.

Some money spent to get the house ready to sell can be worthwhile and may be less expensive than expected. I've found that replacing worn carpeting is generally worthwhile. Sometimes things cost much less than expected. For example, I put granite countertop in a half bath and a cost of about $300 and it made a huge difference in how the house looked.