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.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

We Have an Editor's Choice!

Tallahassee Real Estate Blog: Bailing Out The Banks? Actually Bailing Out America! talks about what is going on, and what will happen if we do not pass a bailout plan. Repulsive as the idea of bailing out Wall Street is, if we do not do so, it's going to hurt Main Street to the tune of a lot more than the $300 billion (roughly 2.5% of GDP) they're now talking about. The country runs on credit, and right now, it is drying up, and not just mortgage credit, but commercial credit and even corporate credit (Caterpillar has some AA rated bonds they're trying to issue - the second highest possible rating, and they're paying prime plus four percent, when I'd expect something less than one. If they can't sell those bonds, they're going to have to contract, which means people will lose jobs, etcetera)

Gregg Swan submits Introduction to "A consumer's guide to the divorced real estate commission" -- the eBook. I disagree with Gregg as to the cure, but the problem does exist because people think they are getting something for "free". His entry is well thought out, and well argued. I was going to give this the Editor's Choice Award until the last minute submission above. Read It.

Your host submits The Return of Portfolio Lending

RECOMMENDED

Short Sale Blogger sends us Government Intervention to Cause Short Sale Boom. I disagree because if the government passes the bail out package like he stipulates, lenders will be in line for a government payout on bad loans, and therefore less likely to accept short sales. But read his reasoning.

Bigger Pockets: Gambling at the Foreclosure Auction: High Stakes. The man who inspired the story wasted $67,000. If you're going to play the foreclosure game, you have to get it right, and be careful, and have somebody who knows what they are doing.

MET GUIDELINES

Uncommon Advice suffers a mandatory one category penalty for commercial solicitation. He submits Increase the Chances of your Property Selling by 100%. It's geared towards the UK, not the US, but the first two pieces of advice are good anywhere that there is a market. The third suggestion is 180 degrees wrong in the US, but in the UK it might make sense.

Home For Sale: $1. The catch is that it is in Detroit.

College Student Bought Home Instead of Renting. Unfortunately, this kind of financing won't work many places besides Detroit.

I almost rejected Shopping for a Real Estate Agent because you should not sign any kind of exclusive buyer's representation. The only exception is is an agent is spending serious money on your behalf. A Non-exclusive Buyer's Agency Agreement gives the agent everything they really need - while reserving unto the prospective buyer the right to fire them or start working with other agents if they don't get the job done, or if they don't have the interests of the consumer foremost in their mind. I get hits every day for "breaking exclusive buyer agreement" But other than that one nearly unforgivable mistake, it's a decent article.

The American Dream Becomes a Nightmare

How Looks, Contracts, and Inspections Affect Real Estate Investments. Actually, in most cases neither the seller nor their agent should see the prospective buyer. And most of the sharpest investors I've met "dress down," at least when viewing a property. They're going to get at least a little bit dirty. I always do. But he's right about doing your homework.

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

A Site named Future Nest Egg submitted a post about credit cards that had absolutely nothing to do with real estate. Not only did they submit off topic, but the information they did submit was mostly flat out wrong. Kind of like Jar-Jar Binks: Incompetent, wrong, and annoying.

A site named Word Press Hacker sent in a submission "Auto Create Navigation Tabs for New Pages" What that has do to with real estate is a mystery known but unto him. Just spam hoping for a link. Denied!

A site named Bankaholic submitted an article called "6 Safe Places to Invest Your Money", thus proving they have no clue as to money management. In fact, five of the six suggestions are all in serious trouble right now. Nor did the post so much as mention real estate. Doubly clueless.

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.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in one month on October 30, 2008, here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be Midnight October 28th.