Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate

The Guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

There were no submissions that made it into the Strongly Recommended category, and hence, no Host's Choice Award.

RECOMMENDED

A Case of Too Much Information? Real Estate and Stock Investments Compared talks about comparative mental effort and stress involved in real estate versus stock investing, and the irrationality of people who act thus.

Until the last paragraph, I was going to reject Being an agent isn't always a safe job... see the recent warning notice below, but that last paragraph has an important warning for owners of real estate that I think makes it worth reading, despite the fact that most of the article talks about being an agent.

Withdraw EPF Money for Home Loan Installment: How it affects your Retirement Fund deals with an way of using your pension fund to invest in real estate - at least if you live in Malaysia.

Your host presents The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Lender Fear, talking about the current macro-economic state of the loan market and its effects upon consumers.

MET GUIDELINES

Five Considerations For Refinancing Your Mortgage does no research, no calculations, doesn't consider reduced cost of interest when it talks about extending the term, and links an online quote site, which is a highly misleading way to end up with a rotten loan. Nonetheless, it does meet guidelines as it doesn't actually shill or make any explicit errors of fact.

Effects of the Mortgage Crisis reads like a laundry list you can find any of hundreds of places. No thought, no recommendations on what to do about any of this. But it does meet guidelines.

Get HUD Homes For Sale - 50% Off!. The title says it all - but you have to be a police officer, fire fighter, or teacher to take advantage of it. Not to mention that these homes are generally not in anything like "move in" condition - and it's usually not just cosmetic, either. You want a fixer? I can find better than most HUDs at a lower price, and I'm not the only one.

Buy Solar Cells: Be Your Own Power Plant and Get Rid Of Your Electricity Bills talks about using solar to cut your electricity bills. My question is: What's the tradeoff? Being green is nice, and worth some bucks to me, but if it costs more than you'll save for the lifetime of the solar system, is it really to your benefit? Is it even to the environment's benefit? If you borrowed the cost of the solar system, would the reduced bills pay your cost of interest? Is it possible that the people who design solar systems need to lower the cost and raise the efficiency?

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

A site named FYI About submitted a straight shill pitch that wants to sell major appliances. This article did not so much as mention real estate. Completely clueless about the nature of the carnival, and probably a paid shill post as well. Zero research, zero thought, zero value.

A site called Rob Moshe submitted a post talking all about his future plans to "help" people that did not so much as mention real estate. Somebody bragging about plans to "help," who doesn't actually submit a post with any useful information or thoughts. Why do I wonder if his plan to "help" people involves countries with asset hiding banking regulations and no extradition agreements?

You'd think a site named Heart of Wisdom Blog might have some kind of clue that a carnival named "Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate" might expect there to be some information that's useful for consumers of real estate in something you submit, as opposed to vaguely religious talk about a relationship with god. You'd be wrong. I don't know about Heart of Wisdom, but Brains of Wisdom are evidently some kind of black hole.

A site named Money Blue Book submitted a shill post advocating paying your mortgage with a credit card for the rewards. Of all the stupid tricks people can pull with their money, this one ranks right up there with, "Borrow money so you can convert it to cash and set it on fire" Come on people, this isn't some game show for inbred imbeciles where the stupidest possible answer is greeted with applause and cries of "good answer!" Every link in the article "just happened" to go to a credit card application page. Even if you paid the card off in full every month, the higher Rate Cost Tradeoff you're stuck with will more than eat any possible reward. If I didn't have an "as family friendly as practical" policy, I'd say a few truly pungent things. Some people will fall for the most idiotic schemes as long as you give them cash. This is the same basic "come on" as mortgage accelerators, but is even less intelligent. Please people, apply a little skepticism to what you read on the internet!

For those who might object to the treatment their submission received, the relevant information has been in the guidelines since before submissions were being accepted for this carnival. Having been told to read the guidelines, you willingly submitted these posts. Live with it. You might try submitting a higher quality post, or one that's not spam.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (February 27th, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be February 25th.