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When we purchased the house, we thought we were getting a stellar deal. The builder was trying to close out of the neighborhood, and we got the model home for much less than he had put into it.

But within about 10 months of buying, my husband was offered a fantastic job in Alabama. We needed to sell. And as with any relocation, it needed to be done quickly so we could get settled in a new home in our new town. We hired a fantastic Realtor who took tons of photos, showcased our home online, added visual video tours and marketed it like crazy. In the home's first weekend on the market, we got an offer, but for much less than our already-low asking price. After gut-wrenching negotiations, we accepted a less-than-ideal offer, thinking we'd at least be done with the dual-city drama.

Soon we discovered, however, that the people who made the offer couldn't get a loan. We were upset, but figured that we'd gotten that offer quickly; surely someone else would come along soon.

But they didn't. We weren't getting showings. It wasn't the price -- we'd gone with a number well below market value. It wasn't the house itself -- it was still gorgeous, staged nicely and in great condition. It was simply the depressed market. Our home was in a lovely little town on the outskirts of the Memphis metro area. But Memphis, despite having lots of affordable housing, was nonetheless suffering deeply from the foreclosure crisis. And while we were only about 15 minutes from downtown Memphis, at the time we were selling, gas prices were astronomical, which probably depressed our potential buying market.

After about two-and-a-half months on a dead market, we asked our Realtor to add a lease-purchase option to our listing. Within a couple of weeks, we had buyers who were asking, in fact, for the lease-purchase option.

NEXT: Lease-purchase: What is it?