if you are not  in a position to pay your mortgage payment then  Short Sale could be the best option for you. A short sale is when the mortgage company agrees to accept a lesser payoff .

We attempted to purchase a short sale house.  It was very difficult.  The family did not want to sell the house and were sad about it.  The wife literally burst into tears each time we went to view or inspect the home.  They made things very difficult and after awhile the husband became angry and bitter, he began putting unmanageable limits on time.  We could only get an inspector in between 9-9:30 am on Tues and 11am on Sat.  The family had expressed thier desire to have our family take thier home in comparison to other people who had looked but they still made it difficult.  We looked at numerous other homes in the short sale market, some were still lived in some were not, all were in horrible states of disrepair.  We also had a very very very long waiting period, the bank has to settle for less money, not a pleasant experience when you want to buy a home, it can easily take months..