I recently sold two homes. One in late 2005 when the market was falling here in Florida. I sold to a buy ugly house guy, I needed to sell fast, I knew the market was crashing and he agreed to buy it for the balance of the mortgage. I lost nearly $50K and felt I got off easy, he rode it the rest of way down loosing the other 50K on the house.
The other was my vacation home. I was in no hurry to sell just wanted to circle my wagons and get ready for bad times that are coming. This was in October 2007 and I sold my 911 the same month I put the house up for sale.
I sold the house exactly 1 year later mostly due to crappy realtors that had no clue what they were doing and were advising me to price the house too high. (this was in hindsight) I was trusting their "professional" knowledge and it was flawed.
I finally found a good realtor and she gave me a competitive price that would move the house. It sold 4 weeks after I listed with her. I sold it for $40K more than I paid for it and was very happy with the results.
Cliffs:
Used buy ugly house guy to get out of house fast, it will get rid of the house but you may take it up the butt.
Used crappy realtors and wasted a year waiting to sell (multiply the mortgage payment x12 and I could have listed lower a year earlier and still been in the same boat.
If you need to sell fast be prepared to take a hit.
Good luck and sorry about your situation. This is exactly why I sold off the toys and got ready for this mess over a year ago. The worst is yet to come.
