Unloading Your Property in a Slow Market

It could be the kindest cut of all.
True, these unsold homes may eventually get bought at decent prices. But in the meantime, the owners are often bleeding money -- and many of them would be smart to slash their asking price and go for the quick sale.
Yet even as prices appear pretty much unchanged, the number of unsold homes has soared. At the current pace of sales, it would take more than 10 months to clear this backlog, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The monthly cost of carrying a vacant home could equal 1% of a home's value, figures Charles Farrell, an adviser with Denver's Northstar Investment Advisors. After all, you still have to pay utilities, insurance, property taxes, maintenance and, of course, the mortgage.
What if the mortgage is paid off? There's still an opportunity cost. The equity in your home could instead be invested in, say, bonds yielding 5%.
Suppose you price your home like everybody else and it does indeed take 10 months to sell. Figure out how much you would be out of pocket over that stretch, either because your home is vacant or because the mortgage has become unaffordably large.