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