No buyer... Should I cancel this deal??

[Marlena Young]

I have a rehab property under contract at 41 cents on the dollar with approx 15-18K needed in repairs, and my last day of the due diligence period is next Friday.
I’ve tried quite a bit to find a buyer, but no bites as of yet. Here are a few things I’ve tried:

- Send e-mail blast to buyers list. Rehabbers and other wholesalers.
- Post about 7 different ads on Craigslist, and repost the ads that have aged.
- Used SellPoint to blast the property out to about 17 various listing sites, including Trulia, Yahoo Real Estate, Local.com, eHouseAds, Lycos, etc..
- Sent a separate direct e-mail and/or called everyone on my buyer’s list to see if anyone had any friends, partners or buyers that would be interested.
- Networked with members here and on other REI forums.
- Contacted members that I've met at my local REIA… and planning to attend a meeting next week.
- Dropped the price quite a bit, down to a 2K assignment.
- Called the court house for the next auction, but the next one will not be until end of this month.
- I had bandit signs out, but they have been taken down.

The property is in a rural area and several of the callers were from the area and knew the house, but were not interested. Others do not want to work that far from the city.

I am fairly new and this would be my first deal. Through my marketing of this property, I have added many to my buyers list, but no one for this particular property.

Lesson learned from this experience is to only contract a property in the areas where my buyers want to buy. This will be the last one in a rural area unless I have a specific buyer for the area.

I truly do not want to cancel and would take a lower assignment if needed, just to get the deal closed. What am I missing? Does anyone have ideas that I haven’t tried or should I just cancel this one and move to the next?