Relo,
You should look at FSD’s proposal over a couple of years. Your Mother is actually going to add to you cashflow and youmay buy the bigger house at a steep discount in 2 years.The scenario absolutely looks different from there on out.
The trade would probably work. You might even be in a good bargaining position going into it if enough people would gladly trade down (to something affordable) and rid them selves of a nightmare about to happen. A few ideas come to mind, again just quick rough draft form. You could list your house as a trade, with a realtor who accepts the flat fee idea and target expired listings by having your agent call them . You could also use the union tripe. Of all things that can be said about it it is effective for advertising. Maybe Craigs’ list? I haven’t used that and some of the rest of the piggs will find your add and drag it over here to make fun of you!
The big downside of the trade is that you give up the opportunity to buy the larger house after prices come down….but you get rid of your own already depreciating asset. Yo could work the trade idea in conjunction with a straight forward listing for sale and take which ever one comes first in a suitable fashion.
I nominate SDR to get you through this :). I believe he lists for 1%.(Let him get a referral fee from the Arizona agent if anybody still bothers with that)