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

There were no strongly recommended articles this time

RECOMMENDED

Reba Haas submitted How to protect yourself from someone else's unpaid water bill when buying a home. It applies to Washington state directly, but California and many other states have similar (although not identical) rules.

Bigger Pockets submits 7 Beginner Real Estate Investing Mistakes to Avoid

Military Finance Network submits an excellent article Homeowners Assistance Program Helps Military Members Who Lost Money Due to PCS. Basically, if you had to sell your primary residence at a loss while the market was down due to military orders, this is something you need to check out.

Your host presents How To Keep Listing Agents From Filtering Out Offers. If you're a property owner looking to sell, you want to read this article before you start looking for an agent.

MET GUIDELINES

Home Inspections Can Save You From Future Headaches Yes, but some specifics and concrete examples might make it better.

What Do You Do When You Face Possible Foreclosure? features three other financial bloggers who don't know about real estate or loans answering this question. There isn't one right answer - it's dependent upon a lot of situational items neither mentioned nor asked for. One of them finally did mention the single most likely answer (try a mortgage modification, which they are already trying) but I can't recommend the post even though it does meet guidelines.

Does Size Matter: How Small A House Are You Willing To Live In?

Periodic tenancy vs fixed term contract - which is best for tenants? How about "It depends upon your situation?"

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

Some stockpicker named Barel Karsan submitted a post called "Identifying Cheap" thinking it would be acceptable because the company they're pitching is a land company. Put him into the comprehensionally challenged group - certainly not a recommendation for his services.

A complete bozo of a site named ETF Database submitted "25 People Who Revolutionized the ETF Industry". Well, no matter your position on ETFs, they have nothing to do with real estate. Of course, I'm not surprised that people who want you to waste brokerage commissions day trading mutual funds (and crummy mutual funds at that) are unable to comprehend that they have nothing to do with real estate. Bad dog! No link! Put them in the doghouse forever.

A site named the Biz-learner submitted "25 Social Media Sites for Financial Professionals". She may call herself the learner, but she failed this course. Can't comprehend guidelines that says this carnival is for consumers, can't comprehend that its about real estate, not social media.

Some idiot named Dan Miller submitted an article about "Celebrity Pictures" and then a second one on "Student Consolidation" that appeared like it might have been about student loans, but was really prurient video. Into the Internet's most famous black hole is where he should go.

A site named "Free Credit Tips Info" submitted a post called "Chase Credit Cards" hyping precisely that. I would say that taking this kind of free advice is likely to cost you dozens of times as much as if you paid somebody. So it's not really free, is it?

Then the same bozo submitted another post on "Prepaid Credit Cards" Here's a clue by four: If it's prepaid, it's not a credit card, numbskull. Avoid this clown. They have no idea what they're talking about, or if they do, they're willing to write anything regardless of how horribly inaccurate it is. I deleted several more of his spam-wannabes unread.

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