Carnival of Real Estate #116
November 10th, 2008Posted by Jim Reppond
Welcome to the #116th edition of CoRE hosted by….me! I’ve been looking forward to this for sometime. I know some people like to do this just for the link juice. But the truth is, I would do this just for the fun of it. This is my first time to host the Carnival, and I hope I get an opportunity in the future to do it again. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Carnival of Real Estate showcases blog posts submitted by the best of the nation’s real estate bloggers. It’s on a different site every week, and this week TheSeattleSpecialist is honored to host it.
I did not set any advance criteria for bloggers to strive for, so tough trackbacks! I wanted to spring it on you without any pre-set conditions. I decided to stay mostly focused on content, but visual appearance and humor also played a roll. In short, I think blogs should be interesting and have a “stickiness” factor - meaning people will want to stay around long enough to read the whole thing and feel there is value in doing so.
I decided on 3 top winners and I would also like to give honorable mentions to 3 other blogs that I thought stood out. Let’s start with the honorable mentions: The first was to Jim for his Seller Tips for a Slow Real Estate Market blog that talks about the back-to-basics pointers that Sellers need to hear. The next was to Mike Price for his Book Report - Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki. I’ve been a fan of Guy’s since his Apple days. His fresh approach to marketing has made “evangelism” a good word again. After reading Mike’s review I will definitely be reading Guy’s new book. And my final honorable mention is to Doug Willis for his Wal Mart’s Real Estate Influence blog. Both Realtors and consumers need to re-adjust their antennas in this foreclosure-saturated market. Knowing when properties are distressed or in foreclosure up front can save you hours of headaches and wasted time.
Below is the list of the top 3 winners and at the bottom is a link to all the blog submissions.
Will the Obama White House Go Solar?
This was posted on Zillow’s blog. This topic was just too fun and timely to resist. Like everyone this week, I am drawn to Obama press coverage because of the historic significance, as well as a burning curiosity about what changes are coming. Green and solar related real estate articles are definitely hot topics these days, and this one was well thought out. Diane’s credit of the article and graphic from the TreeHugger’s blog illustrates a great way for bloggers to post mashups with their own spin and not step on the original authors.
Social Media in Real Estate - Part 2: Facebook
“Social Media” is all the buzz but few agents really understand how works, much less how to use it in their business model. James Shiner does a great job on Geek Estate of showing how Facebook can be a place for spreading real estate information and branding, not just a place for college kids to hit on each other.
As LIBOR Falls, Homeowners With
Adjusting ARMs Get Lower RatesAnd rounding out the top three is a mortgage-related blog. I thought this short article posted on ActiveRain by Melissa gave a good overview of how and why LIBOR affects ARM mortgages. Without going too deep into it and causing the average reader to get lost, she explains (with a great chart) how the crazy spike in the LIBOR happened, and shows how it’s somewhat stabilized.
Thanks to all who participated and here is the list of all the submissions that I read and evaluated. Lots of good, thoughtful stuff. I look forward to hosting again sometime and feel free to subscribe here or drop by anytime! That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of real estate using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.
- Jim
12 Comments Add your own
1. jim | November 10th, 2008 at 5:15 am
Thanks for the honorable mention!
2. Jim Reppond | November 10th, 2008 at 5:46 am
Your welcome. Good job!
I think Realtors sometimes forget to go over the basics with Buyers and Sellers. We think everyone knows this stuff. But that’s because we live and breath it all the time.
3. CoRE #116 - Seattle Speci&hellip | November 10th, 2008 at 6:10 am
[…] The 116th edition of the Carnival of Real Estate is posted over at The Seattle Specialist. Jim Reppond selected posts to highlight that he thought were “sticky” enough to get the reader to read to the end or explore other parts of the blog after reading. Find out if the White House is going solar now that Obama has been elected — head over and take a look! […]
4. Doug Willis | November 10th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Jim,
Thank you for including us in the weeks Carnival. We were honored to be one of your selections.
5. Mike Price | November 10th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Jim,
Good job with the carnival! Thanks for the link love and the honorable mention.
MP
6. Jim Reppond | November 10th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Congrats Mike and Doug and good job!
7. Diane Tuman | November 10th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Hi Jim: I, too, am obsessed with what changes are coming with the Obama administration and thought the solar story was a fun little tie-in. I had no idea Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House, or that they were removed. Anyway, thanks for the nod — I really appreciate it.
8. Ned Carey | November 10th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Good choices. I had already seen a couple so knew they were good.
Thanks for hosting the carnival. I truly appreciate the link to the other submissions. That was a nice touch you didn’t have o do.
9. Melissa Breeland | November 11th, 2008 at 5:24 am
Hi Jim, thanks for the mention BUT I can’t take the credit..this is one of those blog posts that I actually pay for and check the box “this is not my content but I have the rigth to post it” at ActiveRain.
I appreciate the thought though.
Melissa
10. Jim Reppond | November 11th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Thanks, everyone, for all the kind comments.
Melissa - I saw the “Bring The Blog” reference at the bottom and did not make that a factor in my decision. I know a lot of people insist that blogs be totally personalized, but I think of these services like e-newsletters, which often have canned content. They sometimes can have a lot of value, even if they are somewhat generic. Great topic anyway.
11. CoRE # 117 - Agent Genius&hellip | November 17th, 2008 at 11:02 am
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