I worked for a Real Estate office here in Reno for about 3 years before I switched to another office. However some of the things I learned while working there are very different then what most agents are taught in what we like to call the cookie cutter offices.
There are many alternatives to selling your property, and you do not always need to have cash to make a deal work. You can use anything of value such as a car or another property a diamond ring services anything you can think of as a down payment, or even if you have an agent who made need something they can often times take something of value for payment.
If you have some money you can buy discounted notes from someone and earn the intereston that or use the value of the discounted note to get into a property. If you have a note already you can sell it for a discount or you can use it to purchase something else. If you own a property and you need something smaller maybe you can trade with someone who needs something bigger. You can also rent your house if you are having trouble making the payments and move somewhere cheaper until you can afford it again. If you do not want to move out of your home you can rent some of the rooms in your house.
Just because it seems bleek right now does not mean you dont have options. I know that there are agents all over the country that know how to do these deals becase I was a part of that group and I have heard of 3 or 4 strangers who all had something they wanted to sale coming together and make a deal work out where they all got what they wanted. You just need someone to think outside the box.
It just takes an open mind.
I had an active Real Estate license for about 5 years in that time I was a member of the exchangers group where I learned some of these techniques. I am a Life Success Consultant now and I enjoy it very much.