Is your house currently listed with a realtor or are you doing a FSBO and also exploring the trade option at the same time on your own? If you are doing the latter...perhaps it's time to hire a professional expecially since you are off island. I have a blog that explores owner financing here on Trulia. You may enjoy reading it.

Read your owners financing contract carefully to see what you need to do prior to listing your Texas home

Talk to your realtor in Hawaii and see how trading the home there for a property in Texas would affect your listing contract.

Start moving towards improving your credit scores as these are going to continue to haunt you through your life. Never be late on payments. Don't buy anything additionally on credit until the current ones are paid off. Pay off your ones with the highest interest rates/finance charges first. Try to consolidate your high interest ones into lower fee cost options. Talk to a trusted lender to see if things can be adjusted on your credit report to change the scores.

Have a garage sale. It will prepare you for your move and then use the proceeds to pay off your credit bills or improve the properties you are selling.

In this market, you cannot lock in on what your home "appraised" for as that is just an educated opinion. Your property is worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it. Aside from proper marketing, the next most important factor in selling is pricing it properly (unpermitted structure or not). You may have to consider selling it at close to it's land value or consider getting the proper permits, so the value of the home can be included in the sales price. Because the average buyer will need financing - you are looking at working with someone who needs seller financing or someone who has the cash to purchase the property outright. With your FICO scores in the 500s - it doesn't sound like you will qualify for a loan (talk to a lender about this), and I would advise focusing on taking steps to improve those scores so you will qualify for a home loan in the future. As for the sale of your Big Island home - are you working with a Realtor to help you sell it? And finally, have you considered renting the home and moving to Austin?

Aloha, Kneves... I'm sorry to hear your house on the Big Island has been on the market for so long - I'm sure it must be incredibly frustrating for you. Given the pricepoint, I'm assuming your home is in Puna or Ka'u, and those areas of the island have been especially hard hit this past year with both declining prices and declining volume of buyers. Are you offering seller financing on your property in Hawaii to the buyers? That may bring a few more people to your door because if the structure is unpermitted, as you know, no buyer will be able to secure a mortgage against the property.

I realize it's hard to make the decision about what step to take in which order. I often counsel my sellers that if they really want to sell their house, they need to be sure they are actively "moving on" - ie: making plans to move, packing up personal effects, buying plane tickets off the island, etc. Given that I don't know you or your situation well I realize this may be shallow advice, but if I were your agent I would encourage you to start the move to Austin and trust that your Hawaii house will sell once you've really let go of it and are focused on your new life in Texas.

Best of luck to you in your new adventure! A hui hou!! Katie Minkus, Broker-in-Charge, Hawaii Life Real Estate Services, llc. katie@hawaiilife.com. http://www.hawaiilife.com