You can either hold on to your property, sell for a loss or sell for a gain. The choice is yours.
....or you can be like this lady in Tampa:
"Like an operator working a buzzing switchboard, Liz Seither deftly juggles the two phones that never stop ringing in her kitchen.
The 67-year-old Clearwater Realtor's eyes are puffy below unkempt flaming orange hair. She begs your pardon for not looking like one of Pinellas County's top home sellers, but her allergies flared up when her dog's fleas bit her.
Equally irritating are the bank warning letters laid out before her on the kitchen table. Seither invested - unwisely it turns out - in expensive Clearwater waterfront property at the peak of the recent boom. Lenders are after her for millions of dollars in debts.
After juggling 15 calls from debtors, creditors and clients, Seither lays the phones aside and delivers a pep talk to herself.
"I'm not a real estate bum," the president of Executive Preferred Properties announces. "I wear diamonds, Rolexes and necklaces. I'm a classy Realtor."
It's a no makeup day for Liz Seither at her home on Island Estates, a barrier island washed by Clearwater Harbor. She's still in slippers, but a diamond anklet dangles from her leg. That and the diamond crucifix around her neck bespeak better times when she prided herself as a "Multi-Million $$$ Producer."
She dials a prospect, a movie theater owner from Alabama who's been hunting for beach deals. His voice mail picks up. Seither leaves a message:
"Hey you bottom feeder you. Call Liz. Call Liz. I'm still your best Florida friend!"
She hangs up the phone and deflates. It's not been her lucky year. Banks threaten to repossess six of seven investment properties. She slashed millions off prices, but still no buyers. Of her 40 home listings, no sales are pending.
She rented her private residence to a guy who fell $15,000 behind in rent. The guy arranged to pay Seither. But when she arrived he had vamoosed with her high-end washer, dryer and refrigerator.
One a recent day Seither took her dog for a walk and a neighbor flagged her down.
"Don't worry, Liz, you're the only one making money," the woman reassured her.
Seither hated to disappoint her.
"My heart was beating 100 miles per hour," Seither recalls. "It was hard to tell her I'm suffering like everyone else."
Seither's agency is a shell of its former self. The 10 agents she once employed are mostly gone. She survives by managing rentals, 150 properties at last count. Rentals: It's a growth market.
At the end of another hectic 12-hour day, she's heading off to dinner. It won't be seafood on the beach, but $7 all-you-can-eat meatloaf next to Kmart.
She laughs a rare laugh before heading off to the feast: "We're economizing these days."
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/26/Business/Down__but_not_out___I.shtml
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...Yeah Liz... Rolexes and diamonds make one "classy".
