Sellers get creative: Desperate to unload their homes, sellers are trying everything from auctions to essay contests

Two years ago, Ray Sinclair and his wife, Sharon, put their
Yachats, Ore., beach house on the market -- just in time for the housing slump.
"Everybody who saw the house loved it, but nobody could afford it," says
Sinclair, who listed the 1,967-square-foot house for $600,000, then dropped the
price to $539,000. Still, the house sat.