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A Tucson real estate agent made a record-setting sale last month — in the Phoenix area.

RealEstate.com agent Nikki Mehalic-Halle represented Canadian buyers who purchased a $14 million home in Paradise Valley. The home wasn't listed in a Multiple Listing Service, but it's believed to be the top resale price for the state, Mehalic-Halle said.

The 10,000-square-foot contemporary home sits on about 5 acres on Mummy Mountain. It boasts a wine cellar, state-of-the-art electronics, and Zenlike pool and spa areas, she said.

The house was bought by the Mohave Road Trust, the beneficiaries of which are Stephanie, Jack and Samantha Zekelman, according to documents on file with the Maricopa County Recorder's Office Web site. The buyers paid cash, according to documents.

Mehalic-Halle said she has been helping the buyers look for houses in the Tucson and Phoenix areas for years. The buyers picked the Phoenix area because it's easier for them to fly there from Canada, she said.

Canadians are increasingly looking to buy property in Arizona and other U.S. states as their dollar remains historically strong compared with the U.S. dollar.

If you think the market is a "disaster," Long Realty representatives want to set you straight.

Playing on the name of the Discovery Channel show "MythBusters" — where urban legends are often debunked by exploding things or hurling projectiles — Long Realty representatives are planning a public information seminar called "MythBusters: Designed to Bust the Myth of Buying and Selling a Home in Tucson."

The event will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Tucson Association of Realtors, 2445 N. Tucson Blvd. The session, which is free, will feature presentations by real estate experts, including Long Cos. CEO Rosey Koberlein, real-estate-related vendors, door prizes and light refreshments.

"We're just trying to get some factual information out there to help with consumer confidence," said Linda Moore, manager of Long's office at East River Road and North Campbell Avenue. "The Tucson real estate market is really not a disaster right now," she said.

Some of the beliefs that the real estate representatives will discount are "that the real estate market is in a crisis" and "that there's a credit crisis . . . and that houses aren't selling," Moore said.

Tucson-area residential sales were down by 33 percent to 900 in March compared with March of last year, according to Tucson Association of Realtors data released last week. However, listings also were down, by 11 percent to 9,022.

Inventions often are spawned by difficult circumstances, and enterprising minds are starting to gain inspiration from the current real estate slump.

Local attorney Stephen Weeks is working on a slowdown-inspired plan for homeowners in danger of foreclosure. Weeks received a patent for the method, which allows borrowers to take a break from their adjustable-rate mortgages and make lower payments temporarily using a short-term loan for 30 percent of the home's value, minus any equity the borrowers have.

After that, borrowers would need to refinance, or — under a little-used conditional ownership mechanism — they could walk away without the financial repercussions of a foreclosure.

"It's really almost a perfect merger of the best parts of renting with the best parts of owning," said Weeks, who won a roughly $1.2 million lawsuit against subprime lender Ameriquest Mortgage Co. last year.

Another idea to pop up in the aftermath of the slowdown comes from a New Jersey sales consultant, Michael Leppo.

Leppo launched a Web site, www.buyerrs.com, under the premise that buyers should be "rewarded" for their participation in a sale with a share of the real estate agent's commission. (The extra R in "buyerrs" stands for "rewards," he said.)

The idea is that he would attract buyers to his Web site and offer those leads to real estate agents, for a fee. When the sale is made, the buyer would get back a portion — say 20 percent to 25 percent — of the agent's commission.

Leppo said he isn't sure if his plan will work, but it might "get some buyers off the sidelines."

"Everybody is getting creative and trying to find a way to negotiate, because everybody's struggling," he said.