Sale of personal residence

[Bob Stawicki]

Hello:

New at this and I have a question regarding the sale of my personal residence. We live in a small community about 35 miles west of Aurora, Illinois. In July, 2006, my wife and I refinanced and took a second mortgage on our home so we could do some upgrades and improvements. Our 1st mortgage is for $128,000 and our 2nd mortgage is for $20,000 for a total of $148,000. When we refinanced in 2006, our home was appraised for $170,000. Currently, a realtor told us that it would go on the market for $161,000. This is due to the current market situation and other homes in our area have dropped their asking price and some others have been pulled off the market until better times. I may have an opportunity to move for better employment after the first of the year. My question is: should we perhaps pay down the 2nd mortgage and sell through a realtor, pay down the 2nd and sell the home by ourselves, or not pay anthing on the 2nd and sell by ourselves?

By the way, mortgages are current and there is not any problem with our finances. We both have an income coming in. Also, we never sold property by ourselves, always through a realtor. Can anyone be kind enough to offer some suggestions on how we should go about selling our home given our current situation? Any advice would be greatly appreciated and helpful. Thanks!