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

Jay Thompson beat me to writing this article! He submits Making an Offer on a Home. It's not all about the Benjamin's.... If you're thinking about buying or selling, please go read his article. It wins this carnival's Host's Choice Award

Your host presents Shopping For The Best Loan In The New Lending Environment

RECOMMENDED

Real Estate Options 101 - For the Unemployed. There are a lot of mistakes here, and things that may not apply in your state, but it's still worthwhile reading overall. Just don't take it as gospel without independent confirmation.

MET GUIDELINES

Red-Tag 50% Sale on Homes, Going On Now. Strange; I know this writer knows better than to try and time the market. People who bought at the peak did not overpay just because houses around them are now cheaper. That was the price then. This is the price now. Wait a bit and prices will be different.

Are real estate prices stickier in Central America? Well, yes. They don't have the financing opportunities we do. Nowhere else does. Check the interest rates and down payment requirements in Mexico or Europe sometime.

Property and Casualty Insurance - What You Should Know. Nothing really wrong with this article, simply not much useful information. A little bit more research would have gone a long way.

Solar Energy Tax Credit: Will You Install Solar Panels?

Owning Versus Renting is correct as far as it goes, but it needs a lot more work to be a recommended article. Nor would I recommend his choice of finding a provider.

Top 50 Real Estate Blogs

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

An illiterate named Ralph Jean-Paul submitted a post about self-discipline that did not so much as mention real estate. Ralph Jean-Paul needs the self discipline of learning to do things right. Ralph Jean-Paul needs the self discipline not to submit to carnivals in violation of guidelines. Ralph Jean-Paul needs to stop sending out spam in hopes of getting a link from a real website.

That and two people whom I won't publicly name who submitted twelve and eight articles respectively - all plagiarized.

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 May 30, 2009, here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be Midnight May 28th.