Recovering from the water intrusion will be the deal breaker if the deal falls thru.

That probably could have been recovered as well but thief is poor so I did not ask for that. 

Explain their choices to them: a, sell with an agent and pay the cost to sell, which averages 10 to 13% of value of the house, b, rent it out and wait for the market to recover, or c, look at the ways to sell on terms to perhaps avoid the costs to sell.

Are you able to recover your initial investment with the downpayment from the buyer?

I had outstanding payables of around $10,000 but had attempted to recover the funds many times with no success.

I wouldn't put 10% down with out knowing that I could recover my money should we not close.

The attorneys at Brodsky & Smith have been appointed by numerous courts throughout the country to serve as lead counsel in class actions and successfully recovered millions of dollars for our clients and shareholders.

You won't recover much in savings in the next year two, to off set the costs of refinancing. 

First I feel that I am still young enough to be less conservative with retirement "money" and if I do lose it all I still have some time to recover.

Lot's of risk and high chance of running up expenses to challenge them and have you ultimately not recover your money.Capitalizing the difference is also an option and is not clear why it does or does not work without further detail.