Can I sell it by owner and not apply the funds to the judgment?

If the judgment is not tied to the property, then you can sell it. However, you need to be sure. It would be bad to sell the property just to find out that the judgment creditor had a judgment lien on the property.

You are free to sell it and not apply any of the proceeds to the judgment.

As long as the judgment holder hasn't filed a judgment lien against the property then she/he/it has no right to any of the proceeds of the sale. If she/he/it has filed the judgment lien, then any closing agent would use the proceeds to pay off the lien before giving you what's left. If you sell the property without using a closing agent it would be fraud. Fraud is a crime, don't turn a debt problem into a criminal record. If you think have debt problems is bad, try to find a job with a criminal record - particularly a fraud record which is relevant to almost every decent job.

If the judgment was properly recorded, you may have no choice but to pay it off when you sell the property. Creditors commonly record their judgments in the counties where you own real estate in order to get paid when the property is sold. You will need a title report performed to see what the facts are.

All judgments, whether against the property or not, must be satisfied at the time of closing or the Buyer will not have insurable "Free and Clear" title.

You need to confer with an attorney, it is possible the judgment cannot reach the property but could reach the proceeds.